BEIJING, Tuesday June 15 (AP) - China today rejected criticisms that a World Bank plan to aid impoverished farmers by sending them into Tibetan lands will dilute the struggling minority's numbers.

``The legitimate rights of the minority ethnic group in the area are fully protected,'' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.

World Bank studies show that plans to relocate more than 45,000 Chinese and members of the related Hui minority into western Qinghai province's sparsely populated Dulan county will lower the Tibetans' share of the population from 23 percent to 14 percent.

Groups promoting Tibet's independence from Chinese rule claim the relocation violates bank guidelines to protect the interests of ethnic minorities. They have lobbied the bank and donor governments not to approve $160 million for the project at a meeting in Washington next week.

China has tried to fight back, saying the project is worthy of the bank's support.

``The aim is to relocate, on a voluntary basis, poverty-stricken people'' to more fertile lands, said Zhang, the Chinese spokeswoman. The proposed project ``is in full compliance with the criteria of World Bank loans.''

``We are certainly opposed to the attacks with ulterior motives by anti-Chinese organizations, including some Western news media and Tibetan separatist organizations in exile,'' she said.

Either way the bank will find itself caught in controversy. China is one of the bank's biggest and most successful borrowers. By approving the project, the bank opens itself to renewed charges it is aiding prison labor. Dulan has several forced labor camps.

Zhang denied that the project was related to labor camps.

Tibetans driven into exile by China's often harsh 40-year rule over Tibet have complained of attempts to calm the restive region through Chinese colonization.

Meanwhile, China condemned the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader on Tuesday for using a trip to Germany to stir up separatist sentiment for Tibet.

The Dalai Lama ``is not an ordinary religious personage, he is an exile engaged in separatist activities undermining national unity,'' Zhang Qiyue said.

The Dalai Lama, who won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, fled Tibet in 1959 during a failed uprising against Chinese rule but has remained the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists both in exile and in his homeland.

He began his nine-day visit in Bonn on Tuesday and was to meet with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Wednesday to discuss the role of Buddhists and the human rights situation in Tibet.

He expressed hope for re-opening talks with Beijing on greater Tibetan autonomy.