BEIJING, Dec 30 (Reuter) - The largest bomb blast reported in Tibet marks a new desperation in anti-Chinese sentiment in the restive region and offers a longed-for opportunity to officials to launch a new crackdown, analysts said on Monday.

"I think what we are seeing here is people who tend to say that the path of non-violence is not working and they will now use violence," Robbie Barnett of the London-based Tibet Information Network said in a telephone interview.

The Himalayan region that is peopled mainly by deeply devout Buddhists has been rocked in recent years by sporadic, sometimes violent, anti-Chinese unrest, with monks and nuns often at the forefront of demonstrations for in dependence.

The home-made ammonium nitrate blast early on Christmas Day outside a city government office in Lhasa shattered windows in a radius of 100 metres (yards) and was the largest such explosion reported in the region. No casualties were reported.

Barnett described the attack as an act of desperation.

"These people are Buddhists," Barnett said. "But they are Buddhists who do not see anything being achieved by what the Dalai Lama is doing and they are very worried about it."

Officials said there was little doubt that the Christmas Day blast in Lhasa was politically motivated and carried out by followers of the region's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama.

"There have been increasing hints that some groups could turn to violence if China did not relax its repression in Tibet," Barnett said. "But this movement seems to have attracted only a very few."

The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent campaign to win autonomy for his homeland, says he wants self-government and freedom of worship in Tibet.

He fled China in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Beijing rule and has since lived in India with many followers.

As part of his peaceful campaign, the Dalai has proposed talks with Beijing, suggesting China shoulder defence and foreign policy but allow Tibetans self-rule in internal matters such as religion. His spokesmen say China has not responded.

Beijing has said it cannot negotiate unless the Dalai Lama recognises Chinese sovereignty.

Analysts said the latest bombing had played into the hands of local authorities eager for evidence that would demonstrate to Beijing the need for a stricter crackdown in Tibet.

"This is just the kind of thing the authorities in Tibet have been hoping for," Barnett said.

"They have been exaggerating hugely the extent of unrest to justify the need for a crackdown," he said, referring to a string of Tibet newspaper articles warning against anti-Chinese forces. "This can only help them."

Officials interviewed recently in Tibet played down the extent of anti-Chinese feeling in the region, saying those opposed to Beijing were a tiny minority. Witnesses saw little sign of tight security in the capital, Lhasa.

However, a senior police official in Lhasa hinted on Monday that a stable security situation in Tibet and its temples was a result of careful planning. "The order in monasteries is good because we have recently regulated them," he said.

An ideological campaign in Tibet, as elsewhere in China, to promote socialist ethics and allegiance to the Communist Party could have ignited the new violence in a region where many ordinary Tibetans pledge their first loyalty to religion, Barnett said.