Published by: World Tibet Network News 97/05/16 23:00 GMT

BEIJING, May 14 (Reuter) - Police in China's Himalayan region of Tibet took just 57 hours to track down two men who broke into the former summer palace of the Dalai Lama and stole five valuable Buddhist relics, officials said on Wednesday.

The two suspects, both Tibetans from southwestern Sichuan province, were arrested and the stolen relics recovered 57 hours after the theft from the Norbu Linka palace in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, an official of the Tibetan Foreign Affairs Office said.

The two men pried open the lock of a hall in the sprawling park and stole five Buddhist statues early on the morning of May 1, he said by telephone from Lhasa.

The statues had been returned to their home, he said. ^REUTER@