Tibet protesters urge snub to China

About 300 exiled Tibetans and British supporters marched through central London in a noisy, colourful demonstration against China's bloody crackdown on anti-government activists.

Waving flags and pro-freedom banners, the protesters stopped outside the Chinese embassy to sing the Tibetan national anthem and chant angry slogans.

They continued to a mass rally in Trafalgar Square, where Labour MP Kate Hoey urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to refuse to meet Chinese officials at this summer's Beijing Olympics.

Disruption of the Games looked possible after the president of the European Parliament said a European Union boycott should not be ruled out.

Hans-Gert Poettering told Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper: "Beijing must decide itself, it should immediately negotiate with the Dalai Lama. If there continue to be no signals of compromise, I see boycott measures as justified."

At the head of the march in London was exiled Tibetan Buddhist monk Lama Lobsang, who wore crimson robes and held aloft a photograph of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader.

Some of the campaigners wore woolly hats and scarves in the yellow, red and blue of the Tibetan flag against the bitterly cold weather, which briefly included a few flurries of snow.

Mr Brown won praise from pro-Tibet groups for his announcement on Wednesday that he will meet the Dalai Lama when he visits Britain in May.

In China the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper called for Tibetan anti-government protests to be "resolutely" crushed.