BEIJING, Nov 11 (Reuter) - Senior Tibetan Buddhist lamas gathered in Beijing have pleaded in vain for China to reconsider its rejection of a "soul boy" tipped by the exiled Dalai Lama as the next Panchen Lama.

The outcome was reported on Saturday by supporters of the Dalai Lama. The Panchen Lama is second only to the Dalai Lama in the Tibetan clergy.

Some 75 officials and Buddhists summoned to identify the Panchen Lama's 11th reincarnation were called on Friday for a group picture with Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin, the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile quoted sources as saying.

They said the secret conclave could end as early as Saturday, inching closer to naming what the exiled Tibetan movement said would be regarded as a Panchen Lama pretender.

Sources quoted by the exiled god-king's supporters said many of the lamas at the meeting, though hand-picked by Beijing, had urged its pro-China organisers to reinstate young Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as a Panchen Lama candidate. The boy was identified by the Dalai Lama in May as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989. But the lamas were told by hard-line China supporters that the six-year-old's exclusion was final.

"On this point, Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen and other party officials said that the three candidates had already been decided by the Chinese government and no additional name would be accepted," the government-in-exile said in a statement. Sources have confirmed independently that the Dalai Lama's choice is not among the three Beijing finalists.

Reputed hard-liner Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen was named recently to run the Panchen Lama's home monastery, Tashilhunpo, and take over the hunt for the next Panchen Lama.

Tibetan Buddhists, believing that a late lama's soul migrates to a boy born near the time of his death, must identify this "soul boy" through ancient and rigorous tests.

In May, after five years of searching, a Beijing-sanctioned search team at Tashilunpo settled on Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and was preparing to make his identity public when word was leaked to the Dalai Lama at his exile base in India. The Dalai Lama unilaterally identified the boy on May 14, sparking fury in Beijing, which accused him of trying to split Tibet from China and proclaimed his choice illegal and void.

The lama said to have leaked the name, then chief of the Tashilhunpo monastery, Chadrel Rimpoche, was reportedly detained, sacked and finally replaced by Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen.

Seeking finally to lay the matter to rest, China's atheist communist government last week summoned 75 loyal officials and lamas from Tibet and Qinghai for a final selection.

Some Tibetologists fear the naming of rival Panchen Lamas could spark new rifts in the Himalayan region, where resentment of China's sometimes-brutal rule still runs strong, especially among the Dalai Lama's many backers. Beijing has stepped up a propaganda drive in Tibet defending its right to a final say over senior lamas.

Exiled Tibetans call the process a sham, saying the top lamas have final say over each other's reincarnation and that China's choice will be seen as a pretender even if it stages a "golden urn" ceremony to legitimise its actions.

"No Tibetan will be fooled by this," the Dalai Lama's U.S. envoy, Lodi Gyari, said on Friday in Washington. "To all Tibetans the boy recognised by the Dalai Lama is the sole legitimate reincarnation."

The government-in-exile says what it regards as manipulation of a Buddhist rite by the communist state proves that the Tibet Autonomous Region's nominal autonomy is nonexistent.

"This clearly shows that the Tibetans have no choice but to sit there and listen to what the Chinese government wants to do," a spokesman said by telephone from London.

The Dalai Lama and thousands of supporters fled into exile in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule. China accepts the Dalai Lama's religious role but also brands him a political "splittist" intent on Tibetan independence.