NEW DELHI • India has condemned a new road that China is building on the rivals' Himalayan border, saying it raises "serious security" concerns.

The two sides are trading increasingly stern diplomatic warnings over the new hot spot, a remote scrap of territory where the frontiers of China, India and Bhutan meet.

Beijing made a formal protest this week, accusing Indian border guards of crossing from the northeastern state of Sikkim into its Tibetan territory to stop the road building.

India's Foreign Ministry said yesterday that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops entered the area to "unilaterally" construct the road.

"India is deeply concerned at the recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese government that such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India," a ministry statement said.

"India cherishes peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas. It has not come easily," it said, urging Beijing to resolve the skirmish through dialogue.

India and China have long disputed parts of their Himalayan border, and regularly accuse each other of making illegal troop encroachments.

Bhutan has also lodged a formal protest to China, saying the road violated a bilateral agreement.

Bhutan, which does not have diplomatic relations with China, still disputes sovereignty of the land.

And the showdown is part of a wider friction between India and China over the 4,057km border.

China has insisted several times this week that India withdraw troops who are "trespassing" on its side of the frontier. It insists that it has every right to build the road and that it controls the territory under an 1890 accord made with Britain when it was a colonial power in the region.

"We can tell you that the Chinese people remain friendly with the Bhutan people but our determination to uphold our territorial integrity and sovereignty is unwavering," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said yesterday.

"The nature of this stand-off is quite clear, it's a trespass by the Indian side to the Chinese border. So the obvious thing is their withdrawal from the Chinese side."

India and China's ties have been dogged by mistrust stemming from a brief war in 1962 over the north- eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh which has a large ethnic Tibetan population.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE