China demands Israeli speaker cancel Dalai Lama meeting

JERUSALEM, Nov 15 (AFP) - Israel's parliamentary speaker Avraham Burg said Monday he has refused a Chinese request to cancel a meeting next week with the Dalai Lama.

Burg said he was contacted Sunday by China's ambassador to Israel Wang Changyi, who asked him to cancel the meeting.

"I don't see how this meeting could damage Sino-Israeli relations," Burg told Israeli radio.

"There are lots of issues at play in the relations between Israel and China, which are important and should be developed, but Israel must at the same time take account of moral values and standpoints," he said.

"The Dalai Lama is a fascinating international figure," Burg said, noting that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate had previously met US President Bill Clinton, French President Jacques Chirac and Queen Elizabeth II of England.

"I don't see why they would forbid me from speaking with him," he said. The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, is due to meet Burg on November 24, the day before the arrival of former Chinese premier Li Peng.

The Chinese embassy did not have any immediate comment. Peng, now chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), left Beijing on Monday at the start of his Middle East and Africa tour along with a senior parliamentary delegation.

Peng, the most important Chinese official to visit the Jewish state, is due to meet Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who also holds the defence portfolio, and Foreign Minister David Levy.

Last month Chinese Defence Minister Chi Haotian make a landmark visit to Israel in which he and Barak discussed boosting defence cooperation between the once-estranged governments.

China and Israel only established diplomatic ties in 1992, while Beijing has traditionally enjoyed close relations with the Palestinians and the Arab world.

Beijing considers Tibet, which it invaded in 1950, as an integral part of China. The Dalai Lama fled Lhasa for India after a failed uprising in 1959.