Published by World Tibet Network News - Wednesday, March 26, 1997

TAIPEI, March 26 (Reuter) - Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui will meet Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Thursday, a presidential aide confirmed on Wednesday.

"The president will meet the Dalai Lama at 9.30 a.m. (0130 GMT) at the Taipei Guest House. The meeting will has about an hour," the aide told Reuters by telephone.

Although Lee and the Dalai Lama both had expressed their willingness to meet, and planning for Thursday's encounter had been an open secret for days, Taiwan's Nationalist government had steadfastly refused to confirm the meeting.

The planned meeting already has angered communist China, which has assailed it as the collusion of two "splittists" bent on severing both Tibet and Taiwan from the Chinese mainland.

The Dalai Lama arrived in Taiwan on Saturday for an unprecedented six-day visit, his first return to Chinese soil since he fled his Himalayan homeland in 1959 after the failure of an uprising against Chinese rule of Tibet.

The Dalai Lama and President Lee both deny that they seek independence from China. The Tibetan leader has said he wants only self-rule for Tibet, while Lee insists that Beijing first embrace democracy before Taiwan can reunite with the mainland.