Published by: World Tibet Network News, Wednesday, May 22 1996 Part II of II

MILAN, May 21 (Reuter) - The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, said on Tuesday the United Nations should help set up a dialogue with China over Tibet's desire for autonomy.

"International organisations, also the U.N., must help me open negotiations with Beijing," the Dalai Lama told a news conference at the end of a three-day visit to Italy.

He said he believed peaceful means were the only way to obtain Tibetan autonomy.

"A small number of Tibetans have criticised my non-violent position...but the large majority of the population agrees with me," he said.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule of Tibet. Beijing accuses him of fomenting Tibetan independence and stirring up anti-Chinese sentiment. He now lives in India.

In recent days, China has ordered police to crack down on Tibetan separatists. Residents in Tibet have reported that authorities have imposed a ban on pictures of the Dalai Lama in monasteries, temples, schools and homes.

The Dalai Lama, still widely venerated among Buddhists in the deeply religious Himalayan region of Tibet, met Pope John Paul on Monday in a private audience at the Vatican.

"We had a long discussion on religious questions like the imbalance between material and spiritual development," he said.