"The Age" (Melbourne), Saturday 21 October - In a move likely to prove unpopular in Tibet, China is said to be close to formally announcing the official reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the Himalayan region's second-highest-ranking cleric.

According to a report in a Hong Kong newspaper, senior lamas have been summoned to Beijing later this month to conduct the ritual lottery that China says should be used to determine the identity of the true reincarnation.

The Dalai Lama's decision in May to announce the name of the new Panchen Lama drew a ferocious protest from Beijing, which accused the Nobel peace prize laureate of "ignoring the established historical procedure and sabotaging the religious ritual" in naming six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the reincarnation.

Initially, China did not repudiate the selection beacuse the child chosen by the Dalai Lama was the same boy the Government was about to anoint. However, the child's whereabouts are now unknown and several senior lamas involved in the five-year search for the reincarnation are also said to be missing, believed detained.

Western diplomats in Beijing say the "South China Morning Post" report is highly plausible. However, they now believe that the Dalai Lama's choice is unlikely to be one of the three children whose names will be put on lots to be drawn from a golden urn following a tradition established in 1792 by the Emperior Qianlong.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Chen Jian, today reiterated the Government's stand on this issue. "The final decision is up to the central Government and that is something decided by history and tradition," he said. Mr Chen said that according to his information the boy chosen by the exiled Tibetan leader was "safe and sound".

According to Western diplomats, the candidates are being kept under close protection because authorities are worried they may be spirited out of the country by sympathisers of the Dalai Lama.

China claims that the lottery is the final process in the selection procedure whereas the Dalai Lama's supporters claim that it is only used to break a deadlock over the choice of the reincarnation.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet into exile in 1959, commands a fiercely loyal following in his former homeland. A decision to repudiate his choice could spark protests and inflame anti-Chinese sentiments.

Tibet has been a constant source of concern for China since pro-independence riots erupted there in the mid-1980s.