BEIJING, Aug 2 (Reuter) - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, following in the footsteps of Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui, has caught China's wrath in a verbal barrage that has lasted five days.

"The Dalai Lama...used the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama...to realise his political goal of causing unrest in Tibet," the Tibet Daily said in a commentary in its July 26 edition, the fifth scathing attack on the god-king in successive days. "The plot by the Dalai Lama to split (China) has thoroughly failed again," said the commentary, a copy of which was received in Beijing on Wednesday. "A very good situation has emerged, with the entire region stable, united and prospering," the commentary said.

China has blasted the Dalai Lama repeatedly for trying to stir up unrest in Tibet by announcing in May his confirmation of a six-year-old Tibetan boy as the 10th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. The ninth Panchen Lama, the highest monk in the spiritual hierarchy of the deeply religious Himalayan region after the Dalai Lama, died in 1989 at the age of 50. China has launched a series of verbal volleys against Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui after he made a historic, private visit to the United States in June, lambasting him for four successive days last week. China has regarded Taiwan as a rebel-held province since the end of the civil war in 1949 and has sought to push the island into diplomatic isolation. While repeatedly denouncing the Dalai Lama, China had stopped short of writing off the boy as a fake because he was found in the official search. Tibetan Buddhists believe the spirits of their departed living Buddhas are reincarnated in a new-born child. The late Panchen Lama was a controversial figure, rev

iled by some Tibetans as a Chinese puppet but revered by many as a spiritual figurehead and a supporter of better policies for the impoverished mountain region. Beijing has been at loggerheads with the Dalai Lama since he fled into exile in India in 1959 with tens of thousands of followers after an abortive uprising against the Chinese.

The search team was led by Chadrel Rinpoche, chief abbot of the Tashilumpo temple in Xigaze that is the traditional home of the Dalai Lama. Tibetologists say the abbot was detained in the southwestern city of Chengdu on May 17, apparently for notifying the Dalai Lama of the identification of the new Panchen Lama.

The Tibet Daily has defended the government's policy on religious freedom in Tibet, saying it had spent 6.0 million yuan ($725,000) on the Beijing-blessed search for reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. Beijing had also spent 64.24 million yuan ($7.75 million) to build a stupa, a Buddhist shrine, housing the remains of the ninth Panchen Lama and invested three million yuan ($360,000) to embalm his remains, the newspaper said. Tibet has been rocked by repeated, often violent demonstrations led by monks against Chinese rule since 1987.