BEIJING, Oct 16 (Reuters) - China has pledged to boost incomes and infrastructure in remote Tibetan areas where resentment over wealth gaps are blamed in part for sparking deadly rioting earlier this year, state media said on Thursday.

Violent protests broke out in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, in March, then spread to ethnic Tibetan areas of neighbouring provinces in the biggest challenge to Chinese rule in years.

China blamed the Dalai Lama and his "clique" for the unrest, claims which the Tibetan spiritual leader denied, saying that he only supported greater autonomy for the region.

Authorities were set the task of boosting urban and rural incomes in Tibet and ethnic Tibetan areas of neighbouring provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu to "match or approach the average" in western China by 2012, the official People's Daily said in a report on its website.

"By 2020 ... urban and rural incomes should approach the national average," the paper said, citing notes from a meeting of China's cabinet, the State Council, chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

"Environmental protection, livelihoods and the economies of these regions have improved ... but in their cold, oxygen-thin areas, the environment is fragile, natural disasters numerous, infrastructure weak, and self-development capacity is not strong," it added.

After a massive security operation to quell unrest after the riots, the Chinese government has announced projects to boost economic development, including spending more than $3 billion by 2013 on mining and industrial zones.

The cabinet meeting emphasised that development in Tibet would remain key policy.

"Realistically solve the long-term sustenance of nomadic herders who have switched industries and employment," it said.

China, which has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since marching troops into the region in 1950, says its development plans, including mining, forestry projects and settling nomadic farmers into fixed housing have boosted prosperity.

But many Tibetans feel the benefits are being shared unequally and say industrialisation of the Himalayan plateau is destroying traditional culture and ways of life.

Chinese delegates and Dalai Lama aides plan an eighth round of talks on easing tension in Tibet later this month, a special envoy to the Dalai Lama said last week, warning that the issue had reached a "cross-roads".

The Dalai Lama, who is recovering from surgery to remove gallstones last week, has called for a special meeting of Tibetan exiles in November or December to discuss the unrest in Tibet and the future of the Tibetan movement. (Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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