WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuter) Tibet's exiled political and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, will visit Washington this month in search of support for selfrule talks with China, sponsors of his trip said on Friday.

The White House welcomed the scheduled April 2124 visit, but said no decision had been made on a possible meeting between President Bill Clinton and the monk who has led a governmentinexile in India since a failed antiChinese uprising in Tibet in 1959.

``The administration welcomes the Dalai Lama's visit and looks forward to discussions with him,'' Eric Rubin, a White House spokesman, said. ``He will definitely be meeting members of the administration, but at what level and with whom has not been decided.''

The Dalai Lama's visit poses political and diplomatic challenges for Clinton, who has been engineering a rapprochement with China. Beijing denounces the Buddhist leader as a ``splittist'' seeking to foment revolt against Chinese rule in his Himalayan homeland and has threatened to downgrade relations with countries whose leaders meet him.

Organisers of the visit said the Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel peace prize, planned to ask President Clinton to nudge China toward the negotiating table to discuss a measure of autonomy for Tibet.

``The Dalai Lama is seeking some genuine support for a negotiated settlement,'' said John Ackerly, director of the International Campaign for Tibet, which is sponsoring the visit.

The Dalai Lama will be the keynote speaker at a convention on Tibet that will bring together parliament members from more than 50 countries in a House of Representatives' office building. He will also take part in interfaith prayer gatherings.