BEIJING, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A Foreign Ministry spokesman Monday denied reports that the abbot who headed the search for the 11th panchen lama has been arrested. Chen Jian said Chadrel Rinpoche, chief abbot of the Tashilumpo monastery in Xigaze, is "ill and in a hospital" and is not in custody.

Analysts said Rinpoche was arrested in Chengdu May 17, apparently for notifying Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the dalai lama, of the identity of the new panchen lama, the second ranking spiritual leader. He was identified as 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.

Chen also denied the child has been arrested and taken to Beijing. He said the boy remains in Tibet, not under house arrest, but refused to elaborate.

Chen said only Beijing has the authority to choose a successor to the dalai lama and that the communist government would never recognize the legitimacy of the dali lama's decision, despite the fact the boy was found in Beijing's official search.

The government had its own list of candidates, but was "held back because of the meddling of the dali lama."

The 10th panchen lama, Tibet's second most senior spiritual leader after the dalai lama, died in 1989 at 51. A controversial figure, he refused to go into exile with the dalai lama after the 1959 anti-Chinese uprising in Tibet, agreeing instead to support the communist government's policies in the deeply religious Himalayan region.

The 6-year search blessed by Beijing and led by Rinpoche from the traditional home of the panchen lama in Xigatse ended with the boy's discovery in Tibet's Lhari district.

From his base in Dharamsala in northern India, the dalai lama announced May 14 he had found the reincarnation of the 11th panchen lama in Gendum Choekyi Nyima.

Analysts said several riots and dozens of arrests have taken place at the monastery since May when monks refused demands by local Chinese authorities to sign a proclamation denouncing Rinpoche.

A high-ranking monk at Tashilumpo, the venerable wangdu, killed himself July 24 rather than denounce the boy as the newly appointed panchen lama, sources in Dharamsala said.

They also said more than 80 monks from the temple have been arrested by Chinese security forces and are being held at Nyra prison, about 250 kilometers southwest of the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

Following the arrests in Xigaze, police closed the monastery to the public and expelled foreign tourists from the city, they said.

The reports came as tensions rise before the 30th anniversary next month of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Chinese government has back off a pledge to allow foreign journalists into Tibet to cover the anniversary celebrations.

Unconfirmed reports have detailed numerous demonstrations and arrests of nuns and monks in recent months, while human rights groups have cited classified documents as saying security forces are on alert amid fears of a separatist campaign to sabotage the celebrations.