France's Sarkozy keeps Olympic no-show option open

LONDON (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday left open the possibility that he might not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics because of the way China has handled unrest in Tibet.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Sarkozy said whether he went or not would depend on how the situation in Tibet evolved and on consultations with other European countries.

"We were shocked by what happened in Tibet and we made our great concern known, each in our own way," Sarkozy told reporters, referring to himself and Brown.

The unrest in Tibet began with peaceful marches by Buddhist monks in Lhasa more than two weeks ago. Within days, riots erupted in which non-Tibetan Chinese migrants were attacked and their property burned, prompting a security crackdown.

China says Tibetan mobs killed 19 people. The Tibetan government-in-exile says 140 died in Lhasa and elsewhere, most of them Tibetan victims of security forces.

Protests have spread to parts of Chinese provinces which border Tibet and have large ethnic Tibetan populations.

Sarkozy, whose country takes over the rotating six-month European Union presidency in July, repeated his call on Beijing to hold talks with Tibetan Buddhism's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

"We both think that the only solution is the restoration of dialogue between the Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama in the framework of respect for Chinese territoriality," he said.

Sarkozy's comments echoed those of U.S. President George W. Bush, who urged Chinese President Hu Jintao by phone on Wednesday to open dialogue with the Dalai Lama.