TAIPEI, March 27 (Reuter) - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, had a warm visit with Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui on Thursday, finishing off a six-day religious tour on a political note certain to anger communist China.

Witnesses said the men greeted each other warmly at the Foreign Ministry's walled Taipei Guest House, a downtown venue chosen to avoid the political sensitivities of a more formal meeting at the nearby presidential office.

A small group of activists from Taiwan's anti-independence Labour Party protested outside the compound shouting: "Lee and Dalai go ahead and meet but don't split China!"

Even before Lee's aides confirmed on Wednesday that the Dalai Lama and Lee would meet, the long-rumoured encounter already had angered Beijing, which assailed it as the collusion of two "splittists" bent on severing both Tibet and Nationalist-ruled Taiwan from China.

The Dalai Lama's arrival on Saturday triggered noisy protests across the Taiwan political spectrum, with the Taiwan Independence Party urging Taiwan and Tibet to help each other achieve independence.

An official photographer who witnessed the meeting said business-suited Lee and the Dalai Lama in his trademark ochre robes chatted in English as they posed for pictures.

Lee presented the Tibetan Buddhist god-king a 27-kg (60 pound) crystal statue of the Dalai Lama, the witness said.

Substantive discussions had not yet begun when the photographer was asked to leave the room.

The Dalai Lama has maintained that his unprecedented visit to Taiwan was strictly religious, but analysts said it became overtly political once he met Vice President Lien Chan on Wednedsay evening.

In that meeting, the Dalai Lama praised Taiwan's fledgling democracy including its parliament's renowned fisticuffs and said he hoped for better relations with the Chinese.

He reiterated that he was neither anti-Chinese nor anti-communist, though Lien said they differed on the latter count, describing himself as anti-communist.

Before his meeting with Lee, the Dalai Lama had said he hoped to discuss "spiritual reforms" with the church-going Presbyterian.

The state-funded Central News Agency reported that the agenda included discussions of spiritualism, religion and world peace.

It was the Dalai Lama's 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 Lee deny seeking independence from China. The Tibetan leader has said he wants only self-rule for Tibet. Lee espouses Taiwan's reunification with the mainland but not before Beijing embraces democracy.