Tibetan monks have stormed into a press conference in Lhasa and accused Chinese authorities of lying about the unrest and said the Dalai Lama had nothing to do with it.

They made the announcement at the Jokhang Temple, where authorities had been trying to show that stability has been restored since anti-China violence broke out on March 14.

The incident was an embarrassment to the Chinese government, which had brought a select group of foreign reporters to the Tibetan capital for a stage-managed tour of the city.

The government claims security forces acted with restraint in response to international concern over the unrest ahead of the Olympics in August.

"About 30 young monks burst into the official briefing, shouting: 'Don't believe them. They are tricking you. They are telling lies'," USA Today reporter Callum MacLeod said.

Television footage of the bold outburst in front of the first foreign journalists allowed into Tibet since the violence, showing the monks in crimson robes, some weeping, crowded around cameras.

The monks said they had been unable to leave the temple since March 10, when demonstrations erupted in Lhasa on the 49th anniversary of an abortive uprising against Chinese rule that saw Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, flee to exile in India.

One monk said: "They just don't believe us. They think we will come out and cause havoc - smash, destroy, rob, burn. We didn't do anything like that - they're falsely accusing us.

"We want freedom. They have detained lamas and normal people."

Taiwanese cameraman Wang Che-nan said the incident lasted about 15 minutes, after which unarmed police took the monks elsewhere in the temple, away from the journalists.

"They said: 'Your time is up, time to go to the next place'," Mr Wang said.

Chhime Chhoekyapa, secretary to the Dalai Lama, said the incident made clear "that brute force alone cannot suppress the long simmering resentment that exists in Tibet".

He added: "We are deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of the monks and appeal to the international community to ensure their protection."

On Wednesday, Chinese President Hu Jintao said China was willing to continue engaging in "contact and discussions" with the Dalai Lama, but he must renounce support for independence of the Himalayan region and Taiwan, and "stop inciting and planning violent and criminal activities and sabotaging the Beijing Olympics".

China has blamed the "Dalai clique" for the unrest and called him a separatist. The Dalai Lama denies he wants anything more than autonomy for his homeland and has criticised the violence.

The protesting monks at the Jokhang Temple also said the Nobel Peace Prize winning lama was not behind the violence.

Marches by monks in Lhasa turned within days into rioting in which non-Tibetan Chinese migrants were attacked and their property burned until security forces filled the streets.

Protests have spread to parts of Chinese provinces that border Tibet and have large ethnic Tibetan populations.

China says 19 people were killed at the hands of Tibetan mobs. The Tibetan government-in-exile says 140 died in Lhasa and elsewhere, most of them Tibetan victims of security forces.

China has poured troops into the region to keep order.

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.