China halts foreign travel permits to Tibet - Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) - China suspended foreign travel permits to Tibet out of "safety concerns", state media said, and troops locked down its capital Lhasa to try to prevent a repeat of Friday's violence, the most serious in nearly two decades.

Tension was high in Lhasa on Sunday, as police and anti-riot troops locked down the city, and crews emerged to sweep rubble-strewn streets and remove overturned cars.

The protests, which the region's exiled leaders said resulted in 80 deaths, have rocked authorities and shattered China's carefully-cultivated image of a harmonious, united nation ahead of the Olympic Games in August.

The Tibetan regional government suspended handling applications by foreigners to travel to the Himalayan region, Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday, citing a local official.

China, wary of civil unrest, demands foreigners lodge visa-like applications for approval to enter Tibet.

"We also suggest foreign tourists now in Tibet to leave in the coming days," Xinhua quoted Ju Jianhua, director with the region's foreign affairs office, as saying.

Local civil air, rail and highway departments would "provide convenience" for foreign travellers wishing to cut their trips short, Xinhua said, citing Ju.

Foreign tourists have already been blocked from entering Lhasa, where Chinese troops were guarding monasteries and other installations, witnesses told Reuters as they arrived in other cities from Tibet on Saturday.

In Lhasa, authorities have set rioters in Lhasa an ultimatum, urging them to hand themselves in to police by Monday midnight and gain possible clemency, or face harsher punishment.

Monks first took to the streets of Tibet last Monday to mark the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising, and protests soon spread to adjoining regions inhabited by pockets of Tibetans.