The project aims to shiftabout 60,000 impoverished Chinese farmers into the Dulan area in Qinghai province, in western China, and assist them with irrigation and resettlement. The Tibetans claim the transfer will further dilute the Tibetan population, which already is a minority.

Four groups _ Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women's Association, Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy and the National Democratic Party of Tibet _ have begun collecting signatures to petition the World Bank to cancel dlrs 160 million in funding for the Western Poverty Reduction Project.

The World Bank board meets June 8 to decide on the scheme. ``This is going to give the opportunity for more Chinese to transfer into Tibet, so Tibetans will become more of a minority in the future. If there are more Chinese then definitely our identity will be lost,'' said Karma Yeshi, Vice President of the Tibetan Youth Congress, which wrote to the World Bank on Wednesday.

The letter also expressed concern over the environmental damage from mining, warning the project will lead to desertification, land degradation and loss of biodiversity.

Under the program, 61,775 poor farmers living in the arid hills of eastern Qinghai will be resettled into the more fertile lands in central Dulan county. Sixty percent of those farmers _ 37,065 people _ are Chinese. The rest are non-Tibetan, primarily Muslim minorities, the London-based Tibet Information Network reported earlier.

The letter claimed the Chinese were likely to use forced labor by children and political prisoners. ``They have agreed that the World Bank is not going to allow bonded labor or forced labor in the project, but still the Chinese will definitely play tricks with the World Bank,'' said Yeshi.

The groups were writing to World Bank President James Wolfensohn and to the 24 executive directors of the bank to urge them to abandon the project.

Tibetans claim Dulan was part of Tibet prior to the Chinese takeover in 1950. The new settlers will more than double the population of ethnic Chinese in the area.

The self-proclaimed government-in-exile under the Dalai Lama also opposes the project, although it is not directly involved in the public campaign.

``The local people can decide most wisely how to use the land. But the local people won't have any say or participation in the project decision,'' said spokesman Thubten Samphel. ``The main beneficiaries will be the Chinese.''

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Last updated: 21-May-99