The Dalai Lama has promised to resign his position if violent protests in Tibet get out of hand, after China accused him of orchestrating the riots.

"If things become out of control then my only option is to completely resign," Tibet's exiled spiritual leader told a news conference at his base of Dharamsala in northern India.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao this morning laid the blame for a wave of violence that has left at least 16 people dead on the Dalai Lama and his followers.

Mr Wen described the region's most bloody protests for two decades as a deliberate attempt to sabotage Beijing's Olympic Games in August.

"There is ample fact and plenty of evidence proving this incident was organised, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," Wen told a news conference.

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He said demonstrators "wanted to incite the sabotage of the Olympic Games in order to achieve their unspeakable goal".

"This has all the more revealed the consistent claims by the Dalai clique that they pursue not independence but peaceful dialogue are nothing but lies."

The Dalai Lama owes his position to being identified as the reincarnation of the previous spiritual leader. Is it not clear what would happen if he were to give up his authority.

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