(AP) - Soldiers and police tightened their hold on Tibetan areas Wednesday in a clampdown on scattered protests against the Beijing government, which insisted that the unrest would not deter plans to take the Olympic torch to the top of Mount Everest.
Foreigners were banned from entering ethnic Tibetan areas. Journalists were escorted away and told to fly out of one potential trouble spot in Sichuan province, which neighbors Tibet.
State media reported that more than 100 people had surrendered to police in and around Tibet's regional capital of Lhasa, where peaceful protests against Chinese rule turned violent Friday.
The government says 16 people were killed and at least 300 buildings torched in the Lhasa rioting. It denies claims by overseas Tibetan groups that 80 people were killed.
Protests and unrest then spread into neighboring provinces, where more than half of China's 5.4 million Tibetans live.
Chinese officials launched new broadsides at the Dalai Lama Wednesday, describing Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader as a "wolf" and "devil." They have accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of organizing the violent clashes in hopes of sabotaging this summer's Beijing Olympics and promoting Tibetan independence.
In the Indian seat of his government-in-exile, the Dalai Lama asked five groups of Tibetan activists to end a confrontational march to Lhasa, expressing fears about the marchers clashing with Chinese troops at the border.
Police and soldiers set up checkpoints across a wide swath of western China and officers turned back an Associated Press photographer traveling west from Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu near the famed Wolong panda preserve.
Officers were also seen pulling Tibetans in traditional costume off buses leaving Tibetan regions, searching their luggage and questioning them. It was not clear whether they were allowed to continue their journeys.
Officers said an order was issued Monday barring foreigners from all Tibetan areas in the province for 10 days. China imposed a ban on tour groups traveling to Tibet last week, dealing a blow to the region's fast-growing tourism industry.
An official with the Sichuan Foreign Affairs Department said no official notice had been issued, but said she had heard of two cases of police turning reporters away.
"I wouldn't suggest trying again," said the woman, who like many Chinese government workers, gave only her surname, Yuan.