China said 19 people died in riots in the Tibetan capital last week and official media warned against the unrest spreading to the northwest region of Xinjiang, where Uighur Muslims bridle under Chinese control.

Eighteen were burnt or hacked to death in the Lhasa violence, Xinhua news agency said. It has repeatedly quoted officials as saying separatists backed by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, engineered the protests.

But China's handling of the unrest has been met by mounting international concern, overshadowing the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games in August the host wants to a celebration of its arrival as a world power.

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Xinhua said 18 civilians and a policeman died in Lhasa. A total of 382 people were wounded, 58 seriously in the violence.

Exiled Tibetans claim as many as 100 have died in the protests which spilled over this week into neighboring ethnic-Tibetan areas.

In one village to the northwest of Kangding in Sichuan province, neighboring Tibet, witnesses said week anyone looking Han Chinese or "different" was being beaten up earlier this week.

"SPLIT THE MOTHERLAND"

The official media of the northwest region of Xinjiang warned against outbreaks of unrest there inspired by Tibetan protests.

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