By Mark O'Neill

BEIJING, Sep 4 (Reuter) - The head of Tibet's official delegation to an non-government women's forum Monday denied harassment of exiled Tibetans and pointed out that, unlike the Chinese, Tibetans could have as many children as they liked.

A group of nine exiled Tibetans, who last week staged a demonstration against Chinese rule in their homeland, have said they face constant harassment and surveillance, with one of their workshops broken up by official Tibetans.

"People at the forum can speak and go as they wish," Ciren Zhuoga, a physician and head of the official Tibetan delegation, told a news conference.

"No one is following them," she said. "They are telling lies. We want to have a dialogue but they refuse to come to our tent. Our viewpoint is different but we are of the same race and want to tell them of the real situation in Tibet."

The exile group has accused China of forced abortions and sterilization and other human-rights abuses in Tibet.

The official delegation and the exiles each have a tent in a forum of more than 20,000 women in a Beijing suburb.

Because the forum is technically U.N. territory, the exiles were able to stage a demonstration that would have been illegal a few hundred yards away outside the U.N. zone.

Zhuoga said Tibetans enjoyed the special privilege among China's 56 minorities of having no limits on the number of children they could have, with many having seven, eight or even 12.

Chinese strictly limit the number of children for the majority Han Chinese but enforce a much less stringent policy among ethnic minorities, including predominantly Mongolian Tibetans, who are allowed to have more than one child.

Urban Chinese of the majority Han ethnic group are officially allowed to have only one child and the rural Han two.

Tibet's urban residents are encouraged to have two or three children but there is no regulation that they must, Zhuoga said.

Many women want to limit their families to provide better education and living standards for their children, and the government is meeting their demands for contraceptive methods, she said.

Some women carry oral contraceptives in a necklace so they will not forget to take them, Deji Zomu, a writer and also a member of the official delegation, told the news conference.

Asked to comment on allegations by supporters of the exiled Dalai Lama, the region's spiritual leader, of arrests, torture and other human rights abuses of those who oppose Chinese rule, Zhuoga said there was no human rights problem in Tibet.

Zhuoga said the vast majority of Tibetans do not support independence or a return to the pre-1959 society and added that Tibet had been a part of China since the 13th century.

Chinese Emperor Kublai Khan converted to Lamaism in 1270 by an abbot who became the first priest-king of Tibet. The Manchu dynasty, which had conquered China in the 17th century, replaced Tibet's Mongol rulers in 1720 and China has claimed Tibet since.