China to meet Dalai aides

China is to hold talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism whom it blames for a wave of unrest, state media reported yesterday, as the Olympic flame arrived in Japan.

The move comes after concerted pressure from the West on China to talk to the Dalai Lama and marks the first serious step to defuse tensions aside from coming down hard on protesters and lambasting the Tibetans' spiritual leader.

Beijing has stepped up its vilification of the Dalai Lama since anti-government protests hit Tibet and rippled across ethnic Tibetan parts of China in the past weeks.

"In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with the Dalai's private representative in the coming days," the official Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying.

An envoy to the Dalai Lama said yesterday he had received notice of China's offer to hold talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama.

"We have been told verbally, through private channels, that a meeting has been proposed," Dalai Lama envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen told Germany's Deutsche Welle broadcaster.

"We neither know the date, the location, nor the topics that must be addressed at the meeting," he added, speaking in German.

Washington welcomed the announcement of talks.

"We would certainly encourage both sides to follow up and to pursue this kind of dialogue and really use it as an opportunity to try to address some of the real issues that are there," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

China denounces the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet after a failed 1959 uprising against Communist rule, as a traitor and has accused him of orchestrating the unrest, a charge the 72-year-old Nobel laureate denies.

But Tibet has become a flashpoint for anti-China protests that have disrupted the Olympic torch relay around the world and has led to calls for state leaders to boycott the Beijing Games, which open on August 8.