"The Dalai Lama has masterminded a series of separatists activities including a `peaceful march' in foreign territory and explosions and assassinations in Tibet," said the official Xinhua news agency, citing comments by a Chinese official in Tibet, Xu Mingyang.

Xu, an executive vice-chairman of the China-appointed government in Tibet, did not give details on the allegations during the interview with a group of foreign reporters in Lhasa. But he partially confirmed reports which said a Tibetan independence supporter was arrested for pulling down a Chinese flag in Lhasa and trying to replace it with a Tibetan flag. But Xu denied the man was beaten to death by police.

The London-based Tibet Information Network (TIN) said last week that Tashi Tsering, a building contractor in his thirties, died in the police hospital in Lhasa after hewas beaten, with his head struck against the back of a vehicle. He had lowered the Chinese flag in Potala Square, and tried to climb the flagpole to hang the Tibetan flag, which is banned by the Chinese authorities there, TIN said.

Before he was seized by security men, he tried to commit suicide by detonating crude explosives strapped to his body, but failed because it was raining, TIN added.

Xu confirmed the abortive explosion, but did not specify what happened. "The criminal, a farmer from the suburbs of Lhasa, the regional capital, is still alive and has confessed all his criminal activities, showing willingness to correct himself," Xu said.

He said the Dalai Lama has never shown sincerity towards negotiating with the central government on their differences over the embattled region and should be held fully responsible for the failure to achieve substantial progress in previous talks.