China detains four Americans in Tibet Olympic protest

BEIJING, Apr 25 (Reuters) China has detained four US citizens demonstrating for a free Tibet and protesting the Beijing Olympics at the base of Mount Everest, an overseas activist group said today.

The four -- including a Tibetan-American -- unfurled a banner reading ''One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008'' in English, and one in Tibetan and Chinese saying ''Free Tibet'', according to Students for a Free Tibet.

''They held this banner and they walked around for quite some time,'' the group's executive director, Lhadon Tethong, told Reuters by telephone from Kathmandu, adding the information had come via text message.

''They went right into the Chinese encampment. They had this banner, our Tibetan friend was singing the Tibetan national anthem, they lit a symbolic torch for Tibetan freedom,'' she added.

China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since People's Liberation Army troops occupied the region in 1950 and has vowed to bring economic prosperity to the impoverished Himalayan region.

''One World, one Dream'' is the motto for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Beijing officials have said the Olympic torch will enter Tibet after ascending the southern slope of Mount Everest -- known in China by its Tibetan name, Qomalangma -- in Nepal.

The four were at a base camp on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, which is being used by a Chinese team doing trial runs to take the torch up the mountain, Tethong said, adding she did not know what had happened to them following their detention.

China's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment, while nobody answered the telephone at the Tibet government's information office in Lhasa.

The torch relay remains a diplomatic minefield for Beijing Olympic officials, who have also stated their desire for self-ruled Taiwan, which China regards as a breakaway province, to be included in the torch relay.

The relay's schedule is expected to be released tomorrow.

REUTERS SAM RK1428