Paulson urges China to have dialogue on Tibet

By Glenn Somerville

BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson raised the sensitive topic of unrest in Tibet during a visit to Beijing on Wednesday, urging a resolution to the issue through dialogue.

Paulson was the most senior U.S. official to visit China since protests broke out in Tibet that burst into a deadly riot on March 14. The violence was followed by more anti-government protests across ethnic Tibetan areas of western China.

"As you might imagine, I expressed our concern about the violence and urged a peaceful resolution through dialogue," Paulson told reporters.

"I made that point, I felt, in a very appropriate way to the appropriate people," he said, declining to specify to whom he had raised the issue.

Paulson met with President Hu Jintao, Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, among other officials. He is due to meet Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday.

Chinese leaders accuse the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, of orchestrating the wave of demonstrations from his home in exile in India, where he has lived since a failed 1959 uprising against Communist rule.

China says his intent is to disrupt the Beijing Olympics, which run from Aug. 8-24, and to ultimately win independence for the remote, mountain region.

The Dalai Lama's representatives deny the charges and the 72-year-old has repeated that he is seeking greater autonomy for Tibet, not independence.