PARIS, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Justice Minister Jacques Toubon met Tuesday with the dalai lama just hours after China issued a warning against any contacts between French officials and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

However, the government, anxious to avoid any disputes with Beijing six months before a trip to China by President Jacques Chirac, stressed that the meeting was "strictly private."

"It was a sign of the respect due to a great spiritual leader," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jacques Rummelhardt said of the talks, which took place at the dalai lama's Paris hotel.

But he emphasized that France "respects the sovereignty and and territorial integrity of China, with which it hopes to develop a deep relationship."

In Beijing earlier Tuesday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman warned Paris that any official contacts with the Dalai Lama during his stay risked damaging Sino-French relations.

The 1989 Nobel Peace laureate arrived in Paris Monday for a three-day visit described by French officials are "pastoral." He said he would like to meet both Chirac and Prime Minister Alain Juppe, but acknowledged that "this would pose problems, and I don't want to complicate things."

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in northern India since China crushed a 1959 uprising against its rule over Tibet.