TAIPEI, March 12 (AFP) - Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui said Wednesday that he wants to meet with the Dalai Lama when he visits the nationalist island later this month and host a banquet for him, a report here said.

Lee made the remarks during a meeting with a 14-member Buddhist group from Japan, the state-funded Central News Agency (CNA) said, adding that further discussions and arrangements would be needed if the meeting were to go ahead.

Lee told his guests that he would like to exchange views with the Tibetan spiritual leader on religious and philosophical issues, the agency said.

The Dalai Lama flies to Taiwan on March 22 at the invitation of a Taiwanese Buddhist organization.

Observers here said any meeting between Lee and the Tibetan leader would invite sharp criticism from Beijing.

China Tuesday reacted angrily to a Taiwanese parliamentary resolution asking Lee and foreign ministry officials to meet the Dalai Lama during his upcoming visit to the island.

The resolution appeared to contradict the stated low profile Taiwanese officials have said they will adopt over the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit.

"We are opposed to any activity by any person or in any form which is aimed at splitting the motherland," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman commented on the resolution.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister John Chang had previously said he would not meet the Dalai Lama so as not to further strain ties with Beijing, which regarded Taiwan a renegade province.

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has lived in exile in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959 following an abortive anti-Chinese uprising.