CTK Czech News Agency, Praha

PRAGUE, April 23 - The Dalai Lama's envoy for Central and Eastern Europe, Chope Paljor Tsering, who has been in Prague since Monday, may have met with first deputy foreign minister Alexandr Vondra, according to sources close to a number of civic groups.

Himself a former dissident, a smiling Vondra was neither confirming or denying the report today. Tsering has so far met with Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) parliamentary deputy Cestmir Hofhanzl, and this evening is to give a lecture on Tibet and its prospects.

"Occupied Tibet has of course nothing to offer from an economic point of view. Precisely because of this the course of Tsering's visit could be a measure of the Czech Republic's will to carry out a principled foreign policy in which economic interests do not dominate," representatives of the HOST civil rights group told CTK today.

Tsering arrived in Prague on the same day that Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen departed. Qian's visit was accompanied by several protests and demonstrations, and he was met with a Tibetan flag held by two journalists.