Beijing: Chinese police has detained a man they say spread a rumour that the Dalai Lama would pay people large sums of money to disrupt the Beijing Olympics torch relay, a newspaper reported Today.

The man, a taxi driver identified only by his surname, Na, was detained on June 29 in the northwestern city of Wuzhong after allegedly claiming Tibet s exiled Buddhist leader was offering 5,00,000 yuan (US$73,000) to anyone who disrupted the torch relay, according to local newspaper Huaxing Times.

Na also allegedly said another 5,00,000 yuan was being offered to anyone who grabbed the torch and then set himself alight, the report said.

Ironically, the report of the rumour came as China communist leadership renews its own claims that the Dalai Lama was plotting to sabotage next month s Beijing Olympic Games, assertions it has consistently failed to back up with hard evidence.

Last week, the head of the government department in charge of talks with the Dalai Lama s envoys demanded that the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner "openly and explicitly promise with action not to support activities that disrupt the Beijing Olympics," state media reported yesterday.

According to the newspaper report, Na was already known to police as a drug abuser and is suspected of spreading the rumour out of frustration at traffic restrictions imposed ahead of the torch s July 3 arrival in Wuzhong, which lies in the northern part of the predominantly Muslim Ninxia region.

Na was being held on charges of taking drugs while a further charge of rumour spreading was being investigated, the report said.

Calls to police and government offices in Wuzhong rang unanswered today. Tight security surrounding the relay has been ratcheted even tighter during its passage through restive areas in China's west.

Source : PTI