Brown's announcement that he would meet the Dalai Lama came after the British leader spoke by telephone to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and pressed him to end violence in Tibet, which has triggered a clampdown by Chinese authorities.

"China is seriously concerned about the message (Brown's remarks on his willingness to meet the Dalai Lama)," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, according to Xinhua.

"As we have repeatedly pointed out, Dalai is a political refugee engaged in activities of splitting China under the camouflage of religion," he said, adding that Britain must understand the Dalai Lama's "true face."

Brown said on Wednesday he would meet the Dalai Lama, in a move welcomed by pro-Tibet activists.

Brown's office could not confirm when the meeting would take place, but a spokeswoman for the Tibet Society UK said the Dalai Lama was due in London in May.

"I made it absolutely clear that there had to be an end to violence in Tibet... I called for an end to the violence by dialogue between the different parties," Brown told parliament after speaking to premier Wen.

"The premier told me that, subject to two things that the Dalai Lama has already said -- that he does not support the total independence of Tibet, and that he renounces violence -- that he would be prepared to enter into dialogue with the Dalai Lama."

"I will meet the Dalai Lama when he is in London," Brown added.

The Dalai Lama on Wednesday appealed for a resumption of talks with China but Tibet's Communist Party leader Zhang Qingli wrote in a newspaper that China was in "a life or death struggle" over the region it has ruled for 57 years.

China has denied using deadly force to quell the unrest and said the only deaths so far were 13 "innocent civilians" killed by rioters in Lhasa on Friday, while 325 people were injured.

Xinhua reported that Qin had "accused the Dalai clique of organising, premeditating, masterminding and inciting the Lhasa riot."

While blanket security in Lhasa appeared Wednesday to have quashed the unrest, Tibetans in neighbouring provinces have continued to stage defiant protests for independence in their homeland.

Canadian TV said it witnessed one of those protests on Tuesday in Gansu province and broadcast dramatic footage.

In the video clip, more than 1,000 ethnic Tibetans, some on horseback, charged into a remote town, attacked a government building, pulled down the Chinese flag at a school, tore it up, and hoisted the Tibetan one.

Tibet's government-in-exile has put the "confirmed" death toll from a week of unrest at 99, while the exiled Tibetan parliament in Dharamshala has said "hundreds" may have died in the Chinese crackdown.

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