By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON, Sept 12 (Reuter) - The White House said on Tuesday that President Bill Clinton would hold a low-profile meeting on Wednesday with the Dalai Lama, rather than a formal Oval Office session more likely to offend China.

Spokesman Mike McCurry said he did not know if Beijing had sent word that it would protest against any Clinton meeting with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and exiled spiritual and political leader of Tibet.

"The president, in 1993 and 1994, received the Dalai Lama in exactly the same manner he intends to receive the Dalai Lama in 1995.

"The Dalai Lama comes to the White House, meets with the vice president (Al Gore) and the president drops by those meetings. It happened two years ago, happened last year and that's what will happen this year," McCurry told reporters.

He cautioned against reading anything about U.S. Tibet policy into the low-key welcome for the Dalai Lama, who is seeking U.S. support in his 45-year struggle for autonomy from China.

"It's up to the Chinese to reply as they see fit," McCurry said. Beijing says Tibet, which it took over with Communist troops in 1950, is part of China, a position accepted by the United States.

Beijing has protested previous White House meetings with the Dalai Lama as interference in its internal affairs. It made the same complaint about a landmark U.S. visit in June by President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan, which China regards as a rebel-held province.

The Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, shrugged off in advance the possiblity that Clinton might shrink from a personal meeting for fear of putting further strain on frayed U.S.-Chinese relations.

"If the administration feels it's very sensitive and prefers to avoid a meeting -- okay," he told reporters Tuesday.

But the Dalai Lama's backers expressed disappointment at the low-key White House welcome, which they had hoped would step up pressure on Beijing to resume long-stalled negotiations on genuine self-rule in Tibet.

"We feel that the president should not be shy about meeting a man who stands for non-violence and peace," said John Ackerly, director of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, sponsors of the Dalai Lama's trip.

The downbeat White House reception for the Dalai Lama may also stir anger in the Republican-led Congress, which has been critical of Clinton's handling of China.

The Dalai Lama was scheduled for high-profile meetings later Tuesday with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.