US President Barack Obama still plans to meet the Dalai Lama, the White House said yesterday, despite China's warning that such a meeting would hurt ties already strained by US weapons sales to Taiwan.

Digging in on two points of discord with the United States, China vowed to impose unspecified sanctions against US firms selling arms to Taiwan and said any meeting between Obama and the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader would hurt bilateral ties.

The White House shrugged off Beijing's warning.

"The president told China's leaders during his trip last year that he would meet with the Dalai Lama and he intends to do so," White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters.

"We expect that our relationship with China is mature enough where we can work on areas of mutual concern such as climate, the global economy and non-proliferation and discuss frankly and candidly those areas where we disagree," he told reporters travelling with Mr Obama to New Hampshire.

China has become increasingly vocal in opposing meetings between the Dalai Lama and foreign leaders, and one between the Tibetan leader and Mr Obama would increase tensions between the world's biggest and third-biggest economies.

Ties between the United States and China have also soured over trade and currency quarrels, control of the Internet, and Beijing's jailing of dissidents.

A senior Democratic US senator said on Tuesday he had asked 30 US companies, including Apple, Facebook and Skype, for information on their human rights practices in China in the aftermath of Google's decision to no longer cooperate with Chinese Internet censorship efforts.