Published by: World Tibet Network News, Friday, May 4, 1996

CANBERRA, May 1 (Reuter) - A planned Australian visit by exiled Tibetan religious leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner the Dalai Lama will go ahead despite objections from China, the Australian government said on Wednesday.

The Dalai Lama would visit later this year in a personal capacity and as a spiritual and cultural leader and peace prize winner, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Reuters.

It has not yet been decided if government leaders, including Downer and Prime Minister John Howard, would meet the Tibetan leader, the spokesman said.

The Dalai Lama is scheduled to address the National Press Club during his 15-day visit in September.

The Buddhist leader met former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating and Foreign Minister Gareth Evans on his last Australian visit in 1992.

China, which rules Tibet, on Tuesday voiced its opposition to the planned visit.

"We are opposed to any foreign countries inviting Dalai Lama to visit there, and are opposed to the meeting between Dalai Lama and official figures of any country in any form," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

"We hope that countries friendly to China will not provide a venue for the Dalai Lama's political activity to split China."

The Dalai Lama has been living in exile in Dharamsala, India, since 1959 after an abortive uprising against the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1950.