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BEIJING : China said Friday it would soon open fresh talks with aides to the Dalai Lama in a response to fierce pressure from world leaders less than four months before Beijing hosts the Olympic Games.
The state-run news agency Xinhua said government officials would meet "in the coming days" with a private representative of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. The message was later carried on primetime television news, ensuring it would reach hundreds of millions.
It would be the first known encounter between the two sides for a year, and follows last month's deadly unrest in Tibet which triggered a sharp military crackdown by Chinese authorities.
The surprise announcement was immediately welcomed by a spokesman for the Dalai Lama as well as by the international community, with France, the United States, Japan and the European Union hailing the move as a step forward.
"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 Dalai's private representative in the coming days," Xinhua said, quoting an unidentified Chinese official.
Rioting erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa last month, spreading to other areas populated by Tibetans.
Beijing's crackdown in the Himalayan region, as well as criticism of its human rights record, triggered protests that have dogged the Olympic torch -- notably in London and Paris -- on its journey around the world ahead of the Games in August.
A Dalai Lama spokesman called it "a step in the right direction."
"Only face-to-face meetings can lead to a resolution of the Tibetan issue," Tenzin Takla told AFP.
"His holiness, since March 10 when the (anti-China) protests started, had been making all efforts to reach out to China and the Chinese government, and he hopes the Tibetan issue can be resolved only through dialogue," he said by telephone from Dharamshala, seat of Tibet's government-in-exile in India.
The two sides resumed a long-dormant series of talks in late 2002 but they later broke off, and the last known encounter was between June and July last year.
The 72-year-old Dalai Lama, who has lived in Dharamshala since he fled in 1959 after an abortive anti-Chinese uprising, was due to return there at the weekend.
Beijing has laid the blame for much of the violence in Tibet on the Dalai Lama "clique."
The official quoted by Xinhua said they hoped that through consultation, "the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks."
Exiled Tibetan leaders say the Chinese crackdown last month left more than 150 people dead. Beijing insists it acted with restraint, killing no one, and blames Tibetan "rioters" for the deaths of 20 people.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, who earlier Friday met here with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, said China had expressed willingness to discuss everything with the Dalai Lama's envoys.
"I'm particularly happy that this decision was taken during this visit to Beijing. I believe that this also can create a better understanding between China and Europe," he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- who had indicated he could boycott the August 8 Olympics opening ceremony 8 -- called it a "major step" which carried "real hope."
Germany too welcomed the move, pointing out that its foreign minister had pressed Beijing in three telephone calls in recent weeks to resume talks.
In Tokyo, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said that China informed both Japan and the United States through diplomatic channels of its plans to meet with the Dalai Lama's representatives.
"I hope that this dialogue will be a success and that the meeting will be substantial," Komura told reporters.
US national security council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said of the expected talks: "We are pleased to hear this."
Brian Bridges, a politics professor at Hong Kong's Lingnan University, said China concluded that it had to do something to respond to pressure, but cautioned that chances of a meaningful agreement were slim. "I think it's unlikely that China would seriously change its Tibet policy."
- AFP /ls
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