China has asked the World Bank (WB) to fund a controversial $89 million poverty alleviation programme to move poor peasants into Tibetan lands, rejecting charges that it will assimilate Tibetans. Even as the bank is scheduled to meet tomorrow to consider the funding programme, Chinese Vice-Minister of Finance Jin Liqun singled out members of the US Congress, Tibet lobbying groups and the Western media for spreading falsehoods and ignoring the project's goal of helping the poor, the state media reported.