China floats inviting Dalai Lama to Olympics: Tibet MP

By Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A senior Chinese official has asked whether Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama would agree to attend the Beijing Olympics to ease recent tensions, a Tibet government-in-exile legislator said on Monday.

The Dalai Lama would consider going, the law maker said.

Khedroob Thondup, a Taipei-based member of Tibet's parliament-in-exile, said a senior leader in Beijing had called him about two weeks ago to "sound out" the Olympic visit idea. He did not identify the leader.

China has blamed the Dalai Lama for unrest in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China since mid-March.

The gesture suggest that Beijing seeks to show the world that it can get along with Tibetan leaders following a world opinion backlash over China's handling of the Tibet violence.

"If they want to invite His Holiness to the Olympics, that would be a big change," Thondup told Reuters, referring to the Dalai Lama. "I'm sure he would consider this."

China has repeatedly lashed out at the Dalai Lama for a deadly March 14 riot in the region's capital Lhasa and for subsequent scuffles or protests in Tibetan areas of China, which took control over the mountainous territory in the 1950s.

The recent unrest, the most serious challenge to Chinese rule in the region for nearly two decades, prompted anti-China protests that disrupted the international leg of the torch relay for the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics and led to calls for Western leaders to boycott the August Games.