The UN's new human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on Thursday said he was in talks with China over a planned visit to Tibet.

Zeid told reporters that Beijing had "agreed to the recommendation that there be a visit by the high commissioner to Tibet and so we are discussing this issue with the Chinese authorities".

"I've had a few very preliminary discussions about this. We agreed we would sit at some stage and elaborate a concept of how this is going to take place," he said.

Allowing the UN's top rights official to visit Tibet was among a raft of recommendations issued by the UN Human Rights Council when it assessed China's record in October 2013.

Like its 192 fellow United Nations member states, China is meant to undergo four-yearly reviews by the council, which is the world body's top human rights forum.

Longstanding UN insider Zeid, a Jordanian, succeeded South African Navi Pillay as the high commissioner for human rights in September.

Many Tibetans complain of economic discrimination and tight controls on the local Buddhist religion.

At least 130 Tibetans have set themselves alight in China since 2009, according to tallies by campaign groups, in what rights organisations say are protests against government repression in their Himalayan region.

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has described the self-immolations as acts of desperation that he is powerless to stop.

Beijing, however, accuses him of encouraging the acts to further a separatist agenda.

China says it grants widespread religious freedoms in Tibet and says its half century of rule has brought social and economic benefits.

Protests have also spread to ethnic-Tibetan areas beyond what is administratively classed by China as the Tibet region.

A Tibetan student burned himself to death last month in a Tibetan-populated area of Gansu province, in northwest China, overseas media and a campaign group reported.

And five Tibetans reportedly died after police opened fire on unarmed protesters in August in Kardze, a Tibetan-majority area of Sichuan province.

Asked if he would only visit Tibet proper, or also assess the rights situation in other parts of China, Zeid said the details were still being worked out.

"Perhaps it's premature to discuss where exactly I would visit, but in the initial dialogue we spoke of a multi-day visit, so I suspect that I will be able to move around if indeed we are able to get the visit in place soon," he said.