By Mure Dickie

BEIJING, Sept 18 (Reuter) - International parliamentarians have seized a rare chance for open debate in Beijing to demand an end to Chinese repression in the restive Himalayan region of Tibet, officials at an global conference said on Wednesday.

Norwegian and Austrian delegates to the 96th conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) had called on China to boost protection of human rights during a general debate on Tuesday, the officials said.

Tibetans had no religious or political freedom and their ethnic rights were being disregarded, an IPU summary of the debate quoted Austrian delegate Josef Hochtl as saying.

China's huge economic progress had not been matched in the sphere of human rights, Hochtl said.

Beijing should open the hand of friendship to Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, China's arch-rival for the loyalties of the people of the remote mountain region, said Norwegian member of parliament Harald Ellefsen.

The debate on the second day of the five-day IPU conference was the first time Beijing has permitted open discussion of human rights by foreigners since the U.N. World Conference on Women in the capital last year.

China rejects most foreign criticism of its human rights record as interference in its internal affairs and routinely refuses visas to rights groups it considers hostile, but is powerless to control the parliamentary debate, officials say.

Ellefsen's remarks provoked criticism from a senior delegate from China's parliament, the National People's Congress.

Zhu Qizhen, vice-chairman of the parliament Foreign Affairs Committee dismissed the Norwegian delegate's comments as irresponsible and unhelpful, the official Xinhua news agency said in an overnight report.

"The Norwegian representative does not know the conditions of China's Tibet, but made unwarranted charges with some groundless remarks, saying that China violated human rights in Tibet (and) even claiming overtly that Tibet is a conquered land," Xinhua quoted Zhu as telling the conference.

"His words, which interfere with another country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, were extremely irresponsible," Zhu said.

Tibetans had enjoyed no human rights under a merciless system of feudal serfdom in force before Chinese troops took control of the region in 1959, he said.

Tibet, a largely undeveloped region of scattered towns, mountain monasteries and nomadic herders, has long been rocked by opposition to Beijing rule.

Beijing on Tuesday warned that foreign leaders who met the Dalai Lama would see trade and business ties with China suffer, but Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he still hoped to meet the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate next week.

China opposes attempts by the Dalai Lama to garner international support for Tibetan autonomy and last week warned his recent visit to New Zealand would damage ties with Wellington.

Tibetans should be granted more freedoms and protection of human rights should be improved throughout China, where executions continued to be carried out with shocking frequency, Austria's Hochtl told the IPU conference.

The conference, a talking shop for more than 600 members of parliament from 120 countries, is scheduled to discuss human rights again on Thursday. It is also debating food issues and a worldwide ban on anti-personnel mines.