BEIJING, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- China said Thursday it intends to find a replacement for the dalai lama's choice of the reincarnated panchen lama, the second most senior spiritual leader in Tibet.

"The work on the selection of the reincarnation of the panchen lama is still under way," Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang told a news conference.

"We hope that the reincarnation of the 10th panchen lama, which is a major religious event, can be concluded at an early date in accordance with the religious rituals and historical conventions," Shen said.

It was the first official confirmation that Beijing has begun to follow through with a threat to replace the 6-year-old Tibetan boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, confirmed by the dalai lama in May as the recipient of the spirit of the 10th panchen lama, who died in 1989.

The dalai lama, who fled to northern India in 1959 after a failed anti-Chinese uprising, has been accused by Beijing of supporting pro-independence activities in Tibet.

The dalai lama's announcement in May of the recognition of the boy angered Beijing, which branded the selection "illegal and invalid."

For several months, Beijing stopped short of writing the boy off as a fake because he was found in an official government-sanctioned search.

But in July it insisted the dalai lama had broken with tradition by making his selection without China's approval and without the required rituals.

Tibet has been tense since May because of the dispute and international human rights groups claim Beijing has launched a new wave of persecution against supporters of the dalai lama and new panchen lama.

The dalai lama's government in-exile has alleged that Chinese security agents kidnapped the boy and are holding him in Beijing and arrested Chadrel Rinpoche, the abbot of Tashilunpo Monastery in Xigaze who was in charge of the official search.

China has denied the abbot and the boy are in custody, but has refused to provide any details of their whereabouts.

Control over the selection process is important to Beijing because the 10th panchen lama stayed in China and was the only Tibetan leader of national stature to have endorsed some of the Communist Party's policies.

Chinese troops invaded Tibet in 1950, claiming the region had been a part of China since the 13th century.