Government officials in Lhasa reassured citizens on Friday that prices would remain stable with abundant market supply despite influences caused by the unrest a week ago.

"We have taken measures to expand supply to ensure the market won't be out of stock and the prices won't be forced up," said Ma Xiangcun, head of the Tibet autonomous regional department of commerce.

Prices of some vegetables rose after the unrest, which forced most of the city's businesses to suspend operation for two or three days and also affected the vegetable transportation to Lhasa, said Ma.

"However, the prices soon returned to normal as the Ministry of Commerce allocated emergency supplies of edible oil, beef, pork and vegetables from outside Tibet," he said.

The farmers' markets and main supermarkets have resumed operation since Monday. The Renxin Trade Company Limited, owner of Lhasa's largest vegetable and fruit wholesale market, said the trade volume of vegetable and fruit reached 140 tonnes and 45 tonnes respectively on Friday, almost the same level as before the unrest.

At the Baiyi Supermarket in downtown Lhasa, citizen Qoezhoen was doing weekend shopping for her family after staying at home for several days, "The prices are almost the same as before. The egg price seems even to have dropped a little," she said.

Xu Xiaoping, deputy head of the city's price administration, said they had strengthened monitoring and supervision over markets to avoid price rises.

(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2008)