BEIJING, Mar 1 (AFP) - Senior Communist party leader Hu Jintao said Friday that China should make more efforts to build a "new socialist Tibet" and stamp out separatist sentiment in the region, a report said late Friday.

"We must take a clear-cut stance to resolutely and firmly oppose separatism, safeguard unity of the motherland, and work for solidarity among various ethnic groups," Hu was quoted by the offical Xinhua news agency as saying.

Hu, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's central committee, made the comments at a meeting with deputies from Tibet who are here to attend the annual session of the National People's Congress.

His statement echoed a government work report submitted by Premier Li Peng which called for ethnic unity throughout China following a series of Moslem separatist bomb attacks in the northwest region of Xinjiang which killed seven and wounded 67.

Troops forcibly put down an uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959, eight years after Beijing seized control of the region. A large contingent of Tibetans, including their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, live in exile in India.

Hu told the deputies it was "necessary to pay close attention to ... social stability in Tibet" and linked China's efforts to control the region with "the overall situation of state security and modernization process of the whole country."

It was also necessary to "eliminate in time any factors that could lead to instability," he said, without elaborating.

"We must closely rely on the people of various ethnic groups ... to accelerate economic development, achieve long-term stability and common prosperity for all ethnic groups, and build a new socialist Tibet that is united, prosperous, and civilized," he said.

Hu also said that Tibet "should further strengthen the fundamental role of agriculture" and create "pillar industries" to build up its economy.