BEIJING, Mar 23 (AP) -- A newspaper connected to China's ruling Communist Party has called on local governments to use less force when dealing with protests.

Protests have risen sharply across China in recent years as ordinary Chinese vent anger over official corruption, a yawning rich-poor gap and land confiscations. They have also often caused by simple accidents or arguments that attract large crowds and quickly spin out of control.

Governments should "restrain from using force to control protests," said the Study Times, a weekly sponsored by the Party School of party's Central Committee.

Protests should be resolved "through administrative and economic means instead of resorting to force, which might intensify the conflicts," it said. The Party School is an elite training center for top party officials at the central, provincial and city level.

The newspaper's appeal for local governments and police to distinguish between a "collective appeal for help from violations of the law" comes after a protest in Hunan province earlier this month against rising bus fares reportedly drew 20,000 area residents and prompted a harsh police crackdown in which witnesses said one person was killed.

The Study Times also repeated concerns voiced by China's leaders, including President Hu Jintao, that a widening rich-poor gap behind many of the protests had to be resolved.

It said governments at all levels had "to make more efforts to prevent mass incidents from happening by bridging China's expanding wealth gap and reducing regional inequality between the eastern and western part of the country."

The newspaper said that included stopping corrupt activities such as illegally taking land from farmers, adding the police should respond to a protest only when laws are broken.

In an incident Tuesday in south China's Guangdong province, one person was killed and at least 10 were injured when villagers angry over the government's seizure of land for a bioshpere project clashed with workers at the construction site, according to U.S. broadcaster Radio Free Asia.

Earlier this month, in another Guangdong village, Dongzhou, police dispersed 1,000 protesters in the latest standoff in a long-running land dispute, New York-based Human Rights Watch reported.

In the Hunan protest, witnesses, including a human rights activist, said baton-wielding riot police beat the protesters -- including women, children and the elderly -- who fought back with bricks and rocks.