BEIJING, May 17 (Reuter) - China rejected on Wednesday the Dalai Lama's recognition of a Tibetan boy as the reincarnation of region's second most important spiritual leader, blasting the move as part of the exiled god-king's campaign to split China.

"This is totally illegal and invalid," a spokesman for the Bureau of Religious Affairs announced in a statement.

On Sunday, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama said six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, from Lhari district of Nagchu in Tibet, had been named as the true reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most senior spiritual leader.

Tibetan Buddhists believe the spirits of their departed lamas are reincarnated in a new-born child. The last Panchen Lama was the most senior Tibetan in the Chinese government when he died in 1989.

Repeating Beijing's claim that Tibet has for centuries been a part of China, the religious-affairs spokesman reminded the Dalai Lama that for 200 years the approval of the central government had been necessary to confirm any discovery of a reincarnated lama.

He said the Dalai Lama had recognised the boy without this approval.

(...)