BEIJING, March 5 (AFP) - Separatists are pushing Tibet towards disaster, the leader of the autonomous region told the Chinese parliament according to reports Wednesday.

The chairman of China's Tibetan Autonomous Regional Government, Gyaincain Norbu, said: "Separatist activities are a crime which are leading Tibet into disaster."

"The Tibetans reject separatism because it threatens social stability and as a result threatens the vast majority of people," he told the National People's Congress, according to the People's Daily.

"Tibetans will never have as many rights as they do now and they will have more and more in the future," he said

China invaded Tibet in 1951, and the region's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and many of his followers fled to India in 1959 after an abortive anti-Chinese revolt.