China says willing to meet Dalai Lama's envoys

By Lucy Hornby and Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday China was open to holding more talks with envoys for the Dalai Lama as long as the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader renounces what Beijing describes as separatism.

Wen said China's policies towards Tibet were correct and the region was peaceful and stable, even as security forces enforced a lockdown on ethnic Tibetan regions a year after protests and demonstrations across ethnic Tibetan areas.

Chinese officials and envoys from the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing brands a "splittist," have held previous rounds of talks but little of substance has been achieved.

"This kind of talks can continue. The key is that the Dalai Lama must demonstrate his sincerity so that the talks can achieve substantive results," Wen told a news conference at the end of the annual session of the Chinese parliament.

From Dharamsala, the North Indian hill station where the Tibetan government-in-exile is headquartered, an aide said the Dalai Lama was "always open to talks."

"Regardless of what the Chinese prime minister said, we have made it very clear that our envoys are ready for any dialogue," Chhime Chhoekyapa told Reuters by telephone.

The Dalai Lama marked March 10, the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising and his exile, with a speech in India calling for "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet and slammed Beijing, lamenting how his homeland had become a "hell on earth" thanks to the Chinese.

The Nobel Prize-winning Buddhist monk denies China's charge that he is a separatist and seeks instead a "middle way." China insists on only discussing his "personal status."