SEVERAL thousand Chinese have rallied in Paris, Britain, Berlin and Los Angeles in support of their country and against allegedly biased media coverage of the Olympic torch relay and unrest in Tibet.

In Los Angeles, police said up to 5000 people gathered outside the office of the broadcaster CNN in protest against one of its commentators, Jack Cafferty, who described China as a "bunch of goons and thugs". CNN has since apologised and said the April 9 remarks referred to the Chinese Government, not the people.

In Paris up to 4000 Chinese students and other expatriates gathered in the Place de la Republique wearing T-shirts daubed with the slogan "One China, one family" and brandishing signs critical of the Western media, police said.

"We're demonstrating against the disinformation in the French and Western media, to promote the Olympic Games and to construct a bridge between the French and Chinese people - and not a wall as the media do," said one of the rally's spokesmen, Thierry Liu.

Several French also joined the Paris rally including Joseph, 60, who said he travelled often to China and that he was "defending the right to the truth".

More than 1000 people, mainly students, also gathered outside the BBC's offices in Manchester, north-west England, while about 300 staged a demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament in London.

Several hundred pro-Chinese activists demonstrated in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin's business district, gripping banners with messages like "Media untruths," and "China Olympia, one world, one dream".

In Japan, an ancient Buddhist temple, which cancelled its role in the protest-marred Olympic torch relay, was vandalised with white spray-paint.

The Zenkoji temple in Nagano withdrew on Friday from plans to be the starting point for the Japanese leg of the relay on April 26 because of China's crackdown in Tibet.

The Chinese protests come more than a week after torch relays in Paris and London were disrupted by activists critical of Beijing's human rights record and its recent crackdown in Tibet.

The prospect of a boycott and the marred European legs of the torch relay have angered Beijing and prompted ordinary Chinese to call for boycotts of European products.

Meanwhile, up to 100 Tibetans were arrested in north-west China on Thursday after they demonstrated against the earlier detention of monks from a nearby monastery, witnesses and a Tibetan human rights group said.

Agence France-Presse, The New York Times