Tibetan activists sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday demanding the Himalayan region and three neighbouring provinces be withdrawn from the Beijing Olympics torch relay.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao earlier said the riots in the Himalayan region had been incited with the aim of sabotaging the August 8-24 Games and reiterated China's view that the Olympics should not be politicised.
The torch relay, which starts next Monday when the Olympic flame is lit in Ancient Olympia, Greece, is scheduled to go to Tibet twice.

The International Tibet Support Network said in a statement it had sent a letter to the IOC demanding that the torch relay not go through Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces, all home to ethnic Tibetans.
"Unless the IOC wants the Olympic Torch to become a symbol of bloodshed and oppression, they must immediately withdraw all Tibetan provinces from the Olympic Torch relay route," a spokesperson was quoted as saying in the statement.

The torch relay schedule was drawn up by the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) before being given rubber-stamp approval by the IOC last year.

The IOC still expects the relay to go according to schedule.

"The IOC adds its voice to the world's desire for a peaceful resolution to the tensions of the past days in Tibet. The Olympic Torch Relay, which embodies the Olympic values of friendship, respect and excellence, is due to travel to Lhasa in June," it said in a statement late on Monday.

"The Olympic Torch is a powerful symbol which inspires people from all over the world to overcome their differences and come together in mutual understanding in anticipation of the Games which it heralds. "The IOC's expectation is that the 2008 torch relay will go ahead as planned," it said.