China says door open for talks with Dalai Lama

LHASA, China (Reuters) - China said on Saturday the door for talks with the Dalai Lama remained open, after another round of dialogue with envoys of the Tibetan spiritual leader failed to produce a breakthrough.

But Nima Ciren, vice chairman of the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, insisted the Dalai Lama would first have to recognise Tibet was part of China and abandon "splittist" activities.

"There have been 20 groups of people coming to Tibet or the Tibet region for talks ever since 1979, including Dalai Lama's brother, sister, and some of his close aides," Nima Ciren told a news conference in the main Tibetan city of Lhasa.

"I can say the channel for talks with Dalai Lama is wide open."

But he added: "It all depends on Dalai Lama's attitudes, whether he is willing to give up seeking Tibetan independence, whether he is ready to end his acts of sabotage."

Nima Ciren said: "His position has been moderated somewhat, but there have been no substantial changes. He has asked to move the Han people and other minority groups out of Tibet, and to withdraw the army from the region. What is that supposed to mean?"

Beijing and envoys of the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, have been holding a slow-motion dialogue since 1979. The sixth round of contacts since 2002 ended early this month without apparent progress.

The Dalai Lama says he wants greater autonomy for his homeland, not independence, but China has continued to consider him a separatist.

Nima Ciren said the boy picked by the Dalai Lama as the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second-highest ranking spiritual leader, was studying at a high school in Tibet and had been asking to live a normal life and not to get involved in politics.