BEIJING, Feb 20 (AFP) - Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was magnanimous in response to the death of adversary Deng Xiaoping Thursday, offering words of praise for the late Chinese patriarch.

He also expressed regret, however, that Deng did not manage to resolve "the issue of Tibet" during his lifetime a reference to his personal campaign to replace the strict Chinese rule now in place in Tibet with autonomy.

Deng commanded the Chinese troops who took control of Tibet in 1951.

"He was a man of few words. He spoke quietly, and whatever he spoke about concerned his duties," the Dalai Lama said in a faxed statement, recalling meetings with Deng.

"It seemed clear to me that he was someone who finished what he started, a man of great determination with a tough, strong mind."

The spiritual leader, branded by Beijing as one of China's top enemies in recent years, has headed a Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India since 1959, when he fled the Himalayan region after a failed anti-Chinese uprising.

"Deng has been involved in the Tibetan issue from the very beginning ... so it seems to me he had the intention to resolve the Tibetan issue himself during his own lifetime," the Dalai Lama said.

The issue was not resolved, however, he said. "Perhaps he regretted this; for me, even now I cannot find a way to resolve it, so I regret that."

The spiritual leader refrained from judging Deng, saying that historians would determine whether his life's work including handling of Tibet was beneficial to China or not.

The Chinese patriarch, who wielded supreme power from 1978 until the mid-1990s, when his involvement in government waned, died Wednesday evening in Beijing.

Although China has improved standards of living in Tibet, it has also resettled large numbers of ethnic Chinese there and directly interfered in the religious affairs of the region's highly spiritual indigenous people.

Tensions in Tibet have been high since the end of 1995, when Chinese authorities rejected a Dalai Lama-chosen candidate for the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second-highest spiritual authority, installing their own choice instead.