Date: Tue, 16 May 1995

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A House committee begins work Wednesday on a State Department reorganization bill that would require the president to name a special envoy to Chinese-ruled Tibet.

The provision is part of a wide-ranging measure scheduled for detailed consideration by the House International Affairs Committee. The Clinton administration opposes the measure because it would have the State Department absorb three independent agencies.

The bill says the proposed U.S. special envoy for Tibet would be authorized to ``promote substantive negotiations'' between Tibet's Dalai Lama or his representatives and senior members of the Chinese government, and to travel regularly throughout Tibet and Tibetan refugee settlements.

The bill also includes a non-binding section calling on the president to publicly condemn the continued existence of ``the Chinese gulag, known as the Laogai,'' which it says has inflicted human rights abuses on millions of people.