Britain has a duty to defend the "peace-loving people" of Tibet, says Lewes MP Norman Baker.

He told a Commons debate the Chinese reaction to protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa was over the top and unjustifiable.

The Tibetan government in exile has said about 140 people were killed in the protests last month, a claim disputed by Beijing.

Mr Baker, to applause from the public gallery in Westminster Hall, said of the Chinese government: "They can kill, they can maim, they can torture, they can destroy, they can marginalise but they will never destroy the spirit of the Tibetan people."

The Liberal Democrat MP called on the British Government to put further pressure on Beijing to commit to "real"

dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Ministers were urged not to rule out a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing.

On Sunday there will be a procession of the Olympic torch through London as part of its relay around the world.

It could be affected by the first serious disruption of its 85,000-mile route.

Ambassador Fu Ying is to carry the torch along part of the route from Wembley to Greenwich via central London.

Mr Baker said: "For the Chinese ambassador to take up that action on Sunday is really to stoke up the flames quite unnecessarily and will add insult to injury. I hope even at this late stage the ambassador will reconsider."

He urged the British Olympic Association to break its vow of silence and not pretend the human rights situation was "a horrible dream"

that would go away.

Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said Britain's reaction to the Chinese government crackdown had been fast and firm. The rioting in Lhasa had been "on a scale unseen since 1989".

He told MPs: "The current situation of Tibet is a vivid demonstration of many of the human rights concerns which, as a country which aims to uphold international human rights standards across the world, we find most troubling."

*Brighton Tibet Link are holding a vigil for Tibet in the Pavilion Gardens, Brighton on Friday from 7pm until 8pm.