Published by: World Tibet Network News 96/04/03 24:00 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) -- Some 500,000 ethnic Chinese are to be moved into Tibet to work in copper mines, raising concern that the region's ethnic makeup will be severely changed, a Hong Kong newspaper said Tuesday.

The South China Morning Post quoted unidentified official sources as saying Beijing authorities plan to build several mining towns, each to house about 100,000 migrant workers.

Tibetan independence campaigners claim Beijing is trying to dilute the Tibetan population and consolidate its claim to the Himalayan territory it took over in 1951, claiming it is historically part of China.

Official Chinese figures put Tibet's population at 2.38 million; more than 90 percent are ethnic Tibetans.

The sources were quoted as saying China wanted to develop a 300-mile-long copper belt in eastern Tibet -- reportedly the largest group of copper mines in Asia after the one in Jiangxi, a Chinese province.