NEW DELHI, April 5 (AFP) The Dalai Lama will this month visit France, Spain and the United States, where he will open a parliamentarians' meeting on Tibet, a spokesman for the the Tibetan spiritual leader said Saturday.

The Dalai Lama, who in March paid a landmark sixday trip to Taiwan which angered China, is to leave India April 11 and spend around eight days in Spain and France, the spokesman told AFP.

He will then travel to the United States for about four days, where he will inaugurate the Third World Parliamentarians Conference on Tibet in Washington. The first meet was held in New Delhi in 1994.

The conference has been organised jointly by the Tibetan parliamentinexile, located in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, and the Washingtonbased International Campaign for Tibet.

Other details of the Dalai Lama's engagements in the United States were not immediately available. The spokesman said it was not known if the Dalai Lama, a frequent visitor to the United States, would call on President Bill Clinton, whom he has met twice previously.

The Dalai Lama will return to France and spend some more time there before flying back to New Delhi in early May. In France, he is scheduled to visit several cities.

"There is nothing specific about his European visit," the spokesman said.

"His main purpose of going to the United States is to inaugurate the parliamentarians' conference."

The conference was to be held in Washington late last year, but was put off because of US presidential elections.

The spokesman did not say if the Dalai Lama would meet French and Spanish government leaders.

The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel peace prize in 1989, is scheduled to visit the largely autonomous Basque region of northern Spain, other Tibetan officials said.

The Tibetan leader could meet the head of the Basque regional government Jose Antonio Ardanza. The Dalai Lama has shown interest in the Basque autonomy process and its regional institutions.

The Dalai Lama met Taiwan President Lee Tenghui during his last month's visit to the island. Beijing denounced the trip as a plot by "separatist forces" seeking to split China.

On April 1, the Londonbased Tibet Information Network (TIN) said the Dalai Lama was planning a visit to China.

The Dalai Lama has been living in exile in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. India is home to an stimated 100,000 Tibetan exiles, most of whom escaped Tibet with him after an abortive antiChina uprising.

The Tibetan leader heads a governmentinexile in Dharamsala. It is not recognised by any country.