Chinese scholars vowed on Wednesday to press ahead with "patriotic education" in Tibet's monasteries, accusing monks there of being duped by the Dalai Lama into supporting separatism.

The education campaigns, which have increased under Tibet's current Communist Party secretary Zhang Qingli, are seen by some as breeding resentment of Beijing within the region's Buddhist monasteries, but the scholars said they were necessary.

"The purpose of patriotic education is because the Dalai clique has been trying hard to disrupt development in Tibet and disrupt the normal practices of Tibetan Buddhism," Dramdul, who heads the Religious Studies Institute at the China Tibetology Research Centre, told a news conference.

"Patriotic education ought to stop the infiltration attempts by the Dalai clique and provide education to the monks," he said.

China has pinned the blame for a series of peaceful marches that led to a deadly riot in Tibet's capital Lhasa and other unrest in the Tibetan-speaking world on the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism who lives in exile in India.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, rejects Beijing's charges that he masterminded the demonstrations.

But Lhagpa Phuntshogs, who heads the research centre, said the 72-year-old, who renounced independence in the 1980s and has since espoused greater autonomy for the region, had used Tibet's monks and monasteries to instigate separatism.

"It is necessary to offer legal education to these monks because religious activities must also be considered under the framework of the law," he said.

LIGHTNING ROD

The Tibet unrest has also become a lightning rod for criticism of China's Communist authorities ahead of the Beijing Olympics, marring the country's desire to use the Games as the "coming out" party for the world's fourth-largest economy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday refused to rule out a possible boycott of the Olympics, though the U.S. and Britain have reiterated their support for the Beijing Games.

The comments from the Tibet scholars suggested that China plans no rethink of its policies in the region that Communist troops entered in 1950 despite the outburst of violence that the government says killed 19.

Representatives of Tibet's government-in-exile put the death toll at 140. China has banned foreign journalists from going to Tibet, making the competing claims difficult to check.

Despite Han Chinese businesses being targeted in the March 14 riot, the scholars said ethnic relations in Lhasa were harmonious, a view echoed by the Tibet Daily, the region's Communist Party mouthpiece.

The region was a "member of the big family of the motherland, and Tibet's people of all ethnicities are flesh and blood brothers" it said in a commentary.

"Tibet is a gathering place of many ethnicities, and ethnic unity is the lifeline of all Tibet's peoples," the paper said.

When asked his interpretation of why monks began the series of marches, Lhagpa Phuntshogs said they wanted to restore serfdom.

"What do they want? I think it's very clear that they want to try to restore the old theocracy in Tibet. The separatist elements are not happy with the end of theocracy in Tibet ... and they are not happy with the end of backwardness in Tibet."