BEIJING, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A spokesman for the Dalai Lama Thursday dismissed China's attacks on the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, saying Beijing requires his blessing to confer legitimacy on the next Panchen Lama.

"It's very unfortunate the Chinese leadership feels it must be so confrontative with the Dalai Lama," said Bhuchung K. Tsering, the Dalai Lama's special envoy in Washington.

"They obviously do not understand the Tibetan people and that a Panchen Lama cannot possibly be accepted without the Dalai Lama's involvemend in a telephone interview".

His comments came in response to the latest barrage of government attacks -- this time from a group of 20 Chinese religious experts and Tibetologists who gathered Tuesday to discuss the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, Tibet's second highest spiritual leader.

"As scholars we feel obliged to denounce the lies of the Dalai clique on the reincarnation issue and tell the public and international community the truth of the matter," Wu Yungui, director of the China Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Religion, told the China Daily.

"The perverse acts of the Dalai Lama clique are not only against the will of the Tibetan people as well as the Chinese people as a whole, but also against the principles of Tibetan Buddhism," Wu said.

Senior Buddhist lamas and Communist Party officials agreed in secret meetings last week to accept the government's three final candidates and the rites for identifying the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989.

The three boys were among 28 found in the original six-year government-sanctioned search conducted by lamas of the Tashilhunpo Monastery, the traditional Tibetan home of the panchen lamas.

The conclave adamantly rejected the Dalai Lama's choice in May of 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the recipient of the spirit of the 10th Panchen Lama.

"This is a matter of state sovereignty," said Ren Jiyu, president of the Beijing Library. "There is no room for compromise."

Doje Cerdan, a senior professor at the China Center for Tibet Studies, said only the central government has the right to recognize the new incarnation.

He insisted the Dalai Lama broke with tradition by not seeking the government's prior consent and said he should have used the drawing of lots from a golden urn to name the true incarnation.

"The Dalai Lama's confirmation of a soul boy is totally illegal and ineffective because it has neither been conducted according to the gold urn ritual nor been approved by the central government," he said.

But Tsering, the Dalai Lama's spokesman, said the ritual has never been used on a regular basis, only as a last resort, and that Dalai Lamas and panchen lamas have conferred official recognition upon each other since 1600.

Many of the lamas who attended the meeting last week were coerced into going to Beijing, where party officials demanded they return to their monasteries and parrot support for the government's control of the selection process, Tsering said.

"Because a majority of lamas in Tibet support the Dalai Lama, they will never recognize a new Panchen Lama without his blessing," Tsering said.