On that day, Tibetan exiles would observe the 40th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule in Lhasa, which led to the fleeing of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to India in 1959.

"China is possibly taking precautions against free-Tibet activities on this side of the border," said Srikant Regmi, additional secretary at the Nepalese Home Ministry.

"For our part, we are equally alert to the need of disallowing any such activities on our soil."

According to ministry officials, additional security personnel have been deployed and patrolling intensified along the 1,414-kilometer Nepal-Tibet border, which unlike Nepal's border with India in the south, is closed.

Nepal, which maintains a "tension-free" relation with China, considers Tibet as an autonomous part of China, Regmi added.

The Tibetan exiles living in Nepal, however, have no plan for any kind of protest that day, Samduk Lhatse, representative of the Dalai Lama in Kathmandu told Kyodo News.

"We only plan to hold prayers at a local Buddhist temple during which I will read a message from our spiritual leader," he said.

"We don't want to embarrass the Nepalese government by holding anti-China demonstrations."

Nepal is home to some 25,000 Tibetans who entered the Himalayan kingdom after Beijing consolidated its rule on Tibet in the 1960s.

Over the years, thousands of Tibetans have crossed the border into Nepal on their way to India. Last year about 1,500 Tibetans who entered Nepal without valid documents were handed over to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kathmandu.

The Dalai Lama has set up a Tibetan government-in-exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharmasala from where he continues to appeal for Tibetan autonomy. China refuses to hold direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama and calls him a "splittist."

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Last updated: 9-Mar-99