Tibetan envoys at the weekend accused China of failing to take any "tangible steps" in last week's talks between the sides and questioned whether the negotiations had served any purpose.

In an unusually strongly worded statement released on Saturday, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama's special envoys at the talks last week in Beijing, said they had hoped that recent unrest in Tibet would encourage the Chinese into a more positive approach.