Front page, Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday August 24 - by Stephen Hutcheon

Herald Correspondent

Beijing

The Chinese Premier, Mr Li Peng, has warned Australia to officially snub the Dalai Lama when he visits next month, for the sake of continuing good relations with China.

Mr Li pointedly told the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, during a meeting yesterday morning that China's excellent relations with Germany had been badly strained over what Beijing saw as German support for the exiled Tibetan religious leader.

"I took this to be a message that the Chinese leadership does not want Australian ministers to meet with the Dalai Lama," Mr Downer said.

But he shrugged off the warning, saying: "This is an issue on which the Australian Government does not agree."

This response suggests that Australian officials believe China is trying to use Mr Downer's visit to prise political concessions out of the Howard (Australian Prime Minister) Government.

Relations with Germany, once China's strongest European ally, are in deep freeze following the passage in June of parlilamentary resolution condemning China's human rights record in Tibet.

Although there has been no evidence of economic retaliation, Mr Li has said before that countries which display a " more lenient" policy towards China will be rewarded with more contracts and deals.

"The Chinese Government take the view that they would rather we would not meet with the Dalai Lama," Mr Downer said.

"We take the view that the Dalai Lama is a religious leader and that it is appropriate to meet with religious leaders. We meet the Pope, we meet the Dalai Lama. The previous Government did that."

Mr Downer said the Chinese Government's concern over the Dalai Lama's visit and next month's trip to Taiwan by the Minister for Primary Industries, Mr Anderson, would not upset the overall relationship.

Forwarded to WTN News by: power@pnc.com.au (Gayle Power)