BEIJING, Nov 7 (Reuter) - China said on Tuesday it was still searching for the reincarnation of the second holiest lama in Tibet and Chinese sources said monks gathered in Beijing were expected to identify the boy in an ancient rite this week.

"Our work to select the reincarnated soul boy is still under way," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang told a news briefing. "The Dalai Lama's arbitrary selection of a soul boy as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama is null and void," he said, referring to the announcement last May by the exiled god-king of Tibet of the reincarnation of the region's second most senior lama. "(This) violated religious rules on the selection of a reincarnated soul boy," Shen said.

Last week, Tibet's government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, accused China of summoning 75 senior Tibetan lamas to a meeting in Beijing and forcing them to come up with a rival candidate to the Dalai Lama's choice.

The meeting began on Sunday at the military-owned Jingxi Guesthouse in Beijing, staff at the guesthouse said.

One lama was seen at the building, but the meeting was shrouded in mystery and outsiders were kept out. The Bureau of Religious Affairs under the State Council, or cabinet, declined to comment on the allegation of coercion or whether a meeting was taking place. Asked if silence was tantamount to tacit admission, a bureau spokeswoman said: "For some cases, it is not necessary to come out and say things."

Chinese sources with access to the meeting said the lamas were expected to hold ancient rituals to make the final selection of the reincarnation this week and could announce the identity of the boy by next week.

Shen declined to comment or to shed light on the meeting. Last May, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, announced his recognition of a six-year-old Tibetan boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the recipient of the spirit of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989.

The move enraged China, provoking a stream of abuse against the Dalai Lama, whom it accused of using the move to try to split Tibet from China. China maintains it has final say over the appointment of senior lamas under terms of a 1792 Qing dynasty agreement, and says it must approve both the Dalai and Panchen lamas.

Last May, the leader of a team searching for the Panchen Lama's reincarnation vanished, apparently into state custody. Tibetologists said Chadrel Rinpoche was detained in the southwestern city of Chengdu on May 17.

He was reported to have been detained on suspicion of notifying the Dalai Lama that his search team had identified the reincarnation. Chinese officials have said he was undergoing medical treatment. In September, Chadrel Rinpoche was formally removed as head of the committee that runs the Tashilunpo monastery in the Tibetan town of Xigaze. The monastery is the Panchen Lama's seat.

Beijing has regularly accused the exiled god-king Dalai Lama of trying to split China and of fomenting an independence movement in the region since he fled into exile after an abortive uprising in 1959.