KATMANDU (Nepal) - POLICE broke up a pro-Tibet demonstration in front of the United Nations office in Nepal's capital on Tuesday and detained dozens of protesters.

Tibetans in Nepal have held several demonstrations in the past year to demand an end to Chinese rule in their homeland and denounce the alleged killings of Tibetans by Chinese troops during last year's anti-government riots in Lhasa.

But the government issued a fresh warning last week saying participants in any protests against China would face imprisonment.

'Free Tibet. Stop killings in Tibet. Wake up UN, investigate the killings,' the protesters chanted Tuesday at the United Nations' office in Katmandu.

Police quickly moved in to stop the protest and when the two dozen protesters refused to leave, they were loaded into police vans and taken to detention centers.

Thousands of Tibetan refugees live in Nepal, while thousands more are allowed to pass through the country on their way to Dharmasala, India, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile.

The protests are a source of embarrassment to Nepal's government, which wants strong ties with China. Beijing has repeatedly asked Nepal to better control Tibetan refugees within its borders and stop the protests.

China claims Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries until Chinese troops invaded in the 1950s. -- AP