By Sonali Verma

NEW DELHI, July 5 (Reuter) - Tibet's god-king, the Dalai Lama, on Wednesday called for a global ban on the testing and stockpiling of nuclear armaments, saying the threat of nuclear disaster was the greatest danger facing the world.

"The threat of nuclear destruction is still the greatest single danger facing all living beings on this planet," the Buddhist spiritual leader said in a written speech distributed to a gathering of philosophers and scientists in New Delhi. "To ensure longterm peace and stability, our ultimate goal should be demilitarisation of the entire planet," the 1989 Nobel Peace laureate said. "The risk remains as long as even a handful of these weapons continue to exist."

"This year marks the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which reminds us of the horrifying nature of nuclear destruction," he said. "It is instant, total and irreversible." The Dalai Lama said he envisioned Tibet as a zone of peace.

"The key elements of my proposal for Tibet include the demilitarisation and prohibition of the manufacture, testing and stockpiling of nuclear weapons on the entire Tibetan plateau," he said. The Buddhist spiritual leader was speaking at the end of the second day of celebrations to commemorate his 60th birthday.

The three-day celebrations, which were due to culminate on his birthday on Thursday, include prayers, a tree-planting ceremony, Tibetan folk dances and seminars, organisers said.

Academics from all over the world were invited for the four seminars on non-violence and compassion in the 21st century, time and transcendence, inner and outer disciplines and sciences and spirituality, they said.

"This time I wanted to listen more rather than talk, so I sit quietly and learn much," the Dalai Lama told the gathering. "These two days, I listened very carefully."

Organisers of the celebrations said the Dalai Lama wanted the festivities to have no political overtones, apparently in deference to an understanding between India and China that New Delhi would not allow anti-China activities on Indian soil. "Our government is very scared of China," an Indian monk, who is part of the celebrations committee, told Reuters.

The Buddhist spiritual leader has been living in exile in India's Himalayan town of Dharamshala with thousands of his followers since an abortive uprising in 1959 against the 1950 Chinese annexation of Tibet. Relations between India and China, who fought a border war in 1962, have in recent years begun to warm though the Dalai Lama's life in India is closely watched by Beijing.

"War is like a fire where human beings are used as fuel," the Dalai Lama said. "As long as there are powerful armies, there will always be the danger of dictatorship."