Downloaders in China are worried that the government has blocked Apple's iTunes site over pro-Tibet lyrics.

Since Monday, more than 60 people have posted messages in an Apple Inc discussion forum complaining that they could not download songs for use on Apple's iPods.

Their complaints follow the release of The Art of Peace Foundation's new album Songs for Tibet, a compilation of tunes about the rights of ethnic Tibetans in China's mountainous southwest.

Tibet, which Communist troops entered in 1950, suffered violent rioting in March, which led to anti-government demonstrations across Tibetan areas of China, deeply embarrassing Beijing just months before the Olympic Games.

IT analysts in China said that Beijing has probably severed the music selection function of the iTunes site. China is known for using technology to block web pages that contain politically sensitive content.

The core URL "seems to be stopped on the China side" but worked when accessed from abroad, said Danny Levinson, CEO of a digital direct marketing company in Shanghai.

Apple acknowledged an iTunes access problem but declined to explain.

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