Police shot dead an alleged Tibetan independence "insurgent" in northwestern China, state press said Wednesday, the first official admission that authorities killed anyone during recent unrest.
   
A policeman was also killed in the gun battle on Monday in a Tibetan area of Qinghai province, Xinhua news agency reported.
   
Tibet's government-in-exile previously said more than 200 people had been killed in a huge Chinese military and police crackdown on protests against Beijing's rule of the Himalayan region that began on March 10.
   
Until Wednesday's report, Chinese authorities had insisted they had killed no-one in the crackdown and blamed Tibetan "rioters" for the deaths of 20 people.
   
China has however sealed off Tibet and other hotbed areas in the west of the country that have Tibetan populations to stop foreign reporters and other independent observers from witnessing the crackdown.
   
The unrest has deeply angered and embarrassed China's communist rulers ahead of the Beijing Olympics, as it has been a rallying cry for pro-Tibetan protesters who have followed the Games torch relay around the world.
   
Monday's incident occurred after police went in pursuit of the leader of a handful of "insurgents seeking Tibetan independence", Xinhua reported, citing the Qinghai public security department.
   
The group had tried to incite Tibetan herders in Dari county to rally on March 21, a week after major protests erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, according to Xinhua.
   
"After a month-long investigation, the police moved on Monday to arrest the suspected leader. The suspect resisted arrest and gunfire broke out," Xinhua reported, citing the department.
   
"The officer was killed in the gun battle, and other officers returned fire, killing the suspect."
   
Xinhua identified the police officer as Lama Cedain, but did not release the name of the alleged "insurgent" who was killed. Local and provincial police refused to comment when contacted by AFP on Wednesday.
   
In a later report, Xinhua said 1,000 people attended the policeman's funeral, where his body was covered with the red flag of China's Communist Party.
   
The unrest began in Lhasa on March 10 to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule of Tibet. It then spread to Qinghai as well as Gansu and Sichuan provinces, which have large ethnic Tibetan populations.
   
Tibet's government-in-exile said Tuesday that 203 people had been killed, about 1,000 injured and 5,715 arrested in the Chinese crackdown.
   
Tibetan activist groups have previously released photos of monks and other people they said were killed by Chinese security forces, and given the names of many other alleged victims.
   
Activist groups released photos they said were of six people killed in Ngawa, Sichuan province, by Chinese security forces on March 16. Those graphic images can be viewed at: www.studentsforafreetibet.org/article.php?id=1337.
   
The deputy chief of Ngawa, Xiao Youcai, told reporters on April 3 that police had fired on and wounded Tibetan protesters in the March 16 incident, but would not confirm anyone had died.
   
Chinese troops invaded Tibet in 1950 and officially annexed the region a year later.
   
Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland following the 1959 uprising, has repeatedly accused China of widespread rights violations of his people.
   
Tibetan leaders say the latest unrest is a result of the anger and frustration experienced by the people of Tibet under nearly six decades of repressive Chinese rule.