Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew said on Wednesday his government was working with other foreign powers to persuade China to spare the life of Tibetan monk Tensin Deleg Rinpoche.

Mr Pettigrew was asked in the House of Commons what action he had taken to save the life of the monk who is languishing on death row and answered that he had taken up the case "on several occasions, in Beijing and in Ottawa."

Canadian officials had raised the case, and specifically the fairness of the monk's trial - in Beijing earlier this year, Mr Pettigrew said.

"We have asked them to stop this execution," said Mr Pettigrew, adding that more recently Canada had been joined by "other foreign governments" in exerting pressure on Beijing.

Tensin Deleg, 52, was sentenced to death in December 2002 along with Lobsang Dhondup, a 28-year-old activist, for an April 2002 bomb attack in Sichuan's capital Chengdu, in which one person was killed and another injured.

They were also found guilty of further explosions in the Ganzi region of west Sichuan.

Both men denied the charges, and the case prompted an international outcry.

Lobsang Dhondup was executed in January 2003.

Tensin Deleg was given a two-year suspended sentence, which is normally reduced to life imprisonment. But it is unclear if this would happen in his case as Tibetans are treated differently due to the politically sensitive nature of Tibet.

Tibet's supreme spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled Tibet in 1959 amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule, which has persisted ever since.