About 1,500 demonstrators, mostly women, marched along a five kilometre (three-mile) route, carrying banners and shouting slogans such as "We want freedom."

Later they sumbitted memorandums to the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Chinese embassy and the United Nations office here.

In a message addressed to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the Tibetan Freedom Movement, an umbrella group of five Tibetan organisations, urged Beijing to "take a pragmatic stand" on Tibet.

"We hope you will not act in a way that will push the Tibetans in and outside Tibet to seek a violent alternative means to achieve our just aspirations for freedom, justice and human dignity," the message said.

In a separate memorandum to Vajpayee, the Tibetans thanked the Indian government for their "moral and material support" and urged Vajpayee to initiate talks with Jiang to make Tibet a "demilitarised zone of peace."

They also urged the United Nations to support the Tibetan cause.

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Last updated: 10-Mar-99