BEIJING — The Dalai Lama on Sunday hit back at accusations from China that the exiled Tibetan government instigated deadly riots in Lhasa and Tibetan regions, and challenged the Chinese government to produce evidence.

China has waged a bitter propaganda war against the Tibetan spiritual leader, who it blames for organizing violent anti-China protests that exploded in Lhasa on March 14, before spreading to Tibetan areas of neighbouring provinces.

China last week said police had seized guns and explosives from Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and found evidence the Dalai Lama had supported an insurrection campaign by exiled Tibetan independence groups which included planned suicide attacks.

"The Chinese authorities have been making false allegations against myself and the Central Tibetan Administration for instigating and orchestrating the recent events in Tibet. These allegations are totally untrue," the Dalai Lama said in a statement posted on the Tibetan government-in-exile's website.

"If the People's Republic of China has any basis and proof of evidence to back their allegations, they need to disclose these to the world. Just making allegations is not enough," the statement said.

The Dalai Lama's comments followed reports of further unrest in a Tibetan area of southwest China, and as thousands of anti-China protesters draped in Tibetan flags disrupted the London leg of the Olympic torch relay on Sunday.

Tibetan advocacy group, the International Campaign for Tibet on Saturday, said eight people were killed at the Tongkor monastery in southwest Sichuan province's Ganzi (Garze) Prefecture, after police opened fire on a crowd of monks and residents.

China's official Xinhua news agency said an official had been wounded in the riot and that police had fired warning shots, but reported no deaths.

China says 19 people died in the Lhasa violence but representatives of the Dalai Lama say more than 140 people have died in the unrest across Tibetan regions.

The violence in Tibet has proved a public relations disaster for China ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August, and has undermined its carefully constructed image of a unified and harmonious country.

Tibet's Communist Party chief vowed a trouble-free Olympic torch relay through the restive region, in comments published by official media on Saturday.

But protests in other countries' legs of the torch relay have embarrassed China.

Some 2,000 British police officers guarding the 80 athletes and celebrities participating in the torch relay in London on Sunday were unable to stop repeated disruptions by anti-China protesters.