WASHINGTON -- China's Communist elders jousted in a fierce power struggle before patriarch Deng Xiaoping sent troops to crush Tiananmen Square democracy protests in 1989, secret documents published here show, AFP reported.

The trove of transcripts of conversations among top echelons of China's communist hierarchy offers an unprecedented glimpse into the shadowy world of power politics at the heart of the Beijing communist regime.

They show Deng and subordinates bickering over the protests, before hardliners win his ear, provoking the bloody suppression of the democracy movement on June 4, killing hundreds, by some accounts, thousands of people.

"We can't just allow people to demonstrate whenever they want to," says Deng in a transcript of a meeting of China's top leaders after the massacre, in documents to be published in the next issue of the journal ****Foreign Affairs****.

"If people demonstrate 365 days a year and don't want to do anything else, reform and opening will get nowhere," he said.

Excerpts from the papers due to be revealed on the CBS show 60 minutes on Sunday suggest that Deng, who died in 1997, feared his regime could crumble if the protests were allowed to continue.

"Anarchy gets worse every day. If this continues, we could even end up under house arrest," Deng told a meeting of his inner circle before the massacre, according to advance details of the program.

The transcripts of conversations and meetings were spirited out of China by a "representative of reform elements within the communist hierarchy" the New York-based journal said.

The compiler, who wishes to remain anonymous, was debriefed by three American scholars, who translated the material and are convinced it is authentic. The information is also being published in a new book published by public affairs books in New York.

Another extract, used by the ****Washington Post**** has Deng declaring "We can't be led around by the nose," during a leadership meeting at his house before the massacre.

As the democracy movement gathered pace in April and May 1989, the so-called "Tiananmen papers" show Chinese leaders struggling to keep up.

A deep rift opened between hardline Premier Li Peng and Deng's top subordinate Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, who had earlier recommended a conciliatory line toward the students.

The clash ended with Zhao saddled with responsibility for the mushrooming protests.

"I think Comrade Ziyang must bear the main responsibility for the escalation of the student movement, as well as for the fact that the situation has gotten so hard to control," Li said.

Deng Seemed to Agree.

"In the recent turmoil Zhao Ziyang has exposed his position completely," said Deng, who comes across as an elder statesman in one last act of guiding the party, in a meeting of top cadres.

"He obviously stands on the side of the turmoil, and in practical terms he has been fomenting division, splitting the party, and defending turmoil. It's lucky we're still here to keep a lid on things."

Zhao was replaced as party general secretary by party elders in a highly unusual vote during the crisis by Jiang Zemin, who is now China's president.

Li's hawkish stance revealed in the documents appears to confirm what opponents of the Chinese regime have long suspected -- that his hardline stanch prompted the crackdown.

The suppression of the democracy movement in an around Beijing's Tiananmen Square exposed China up to vilification in the West. Ever since, the Beijing government has kept a tight rein on dissent, determined to stop political plurality sprouting from growing economic freedom, AFP said.