More than 7,000 people have demonstrated in the Swiss capital Bern to show their solidarity with Tibetans.

The demonstrators, who included many exiled Tibetans living in Switzerland, demanded on Saturday that the government officially receive the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan leader will visit Bern in October following an invitation from the city authorities.

Economics Minister Doris Leuthard was also asked to request from the Chinese government the authorisation for an international fact-finding committee to travel to Tibet. Leuthard will travel to China next month.

Days of protests in Lhasa against Chinese rule turned violent on March 14, galvanizing critics of Beijing's communist regime and threatening to overshadow the Beijing summer Olympics.

China says 22 people died in the violence, while overseas Tibet supporters say many times that number were killed in the protests and subsequent crackdown across Tibetan regions of western China.

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