BEIJING, April 15 (Reuter) - China said on Tuesday that a channel for talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama remained open but accused the exiled god-king of Tibet of failing to renounce independence.

``The channel for talks between the central government and the Dalai Lama is open,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang told a news briefing.

``From the Dalai Lama's side, in his official channels of talks with the central government, he has never renounced his stand of independence,'' Shen said in answer to a question on China's response to a visit by the Dalai Lama to Spain and France.

The Dalai Lama was not acting as a purely religious figure but was a political exile, Shen said, adding that he was deceiving international public opinion.

Beijing routinely accuses the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, of seeking to split the Himalayan region from China.

The Tibetan leader won the Nobel Peace prize in 1989 for his peaceful campaign for autonomy for his homeland.

During a visit to Taiwan last month, the Dalai Lama called for a compromise with Beijing, saying that neither Tibet nor China benefited from the prolonged dispute.