China has asked the Dalai Lama to use his “influence” to stop violence in Tibet, in the first such statement which said the door for dialogue with him was “always open but stepped up its crackdown in riot-scarred Lhasa defying global pressure to exercise restraint.

The channels for dialogue between the Chinese government and Dalai Lama is always open, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said during a visit to Laos, as the Olympic flame arrived here on Monday under tight security arrangements to thwart protests.

“As long as Dalai Lama abandons the claim for ‘Tibet independence’, especially uses his influence to stop the violence in Tibet and recognise both Tibet and Taiwan as inseparable parts of China, the Chinese government is to continue resuming dialogues with him,” Wen was quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Wen urged foreign governments and media to view this incident in an objective and impartial manner. Chinese police rounded up new suspects in connection with the most vicious pro-independence protests in two decades in Tibet, taking the number of those arrested to 414.

These “people were suspected of involvement in deadly unrest in and near the Tibetan capital Lhasa in mid-March,” state media reported.