Campaigners for Tibetan independence have applied to the High Court in Britain for a legal review of the policing of demonstrations against the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, during his official visit to London last year.

The Director of the Free Tibet Campaign group, Alison Reynolds, told the BBC the group believed the police acted unreasonably and unlawfully to suppress public demonstrations against the visit.

The legal move coincided with protests outside the Ministry of Defence in London where the Chinese defence minister, Chi Haotian, was meeting his British counterpart, Geoffrey Hoon.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service