VITORIA, Spain, April 16 (AFP) - The Dalai Lama on Wednesday urged the people of Spain's largely autonomous Basque country to support the cause of the people of China's territory Tibet.

Tibet "wants to preserve its culture and its environment while China's concern is national unity," the Tibetan spiritual leader said in an address to the Basque regional parliament here.

"A real autonomy would resolve our problems," he said, citing the Basque country and Catalonia in northwestern Spain as examples.

He told a press conference in Bilbao on Tuesday that he was "not demanding Tibetan independence. I am asking for autonomy because it would be beneficial to be part of a large nation."

China has occupied Tibet since 1951.

If Tibet was to be granted autonomy by the Chinese, he would cede his powers to an interim government with a view to holding elections and installing a system of parliamentary democracy, he said.

Defending his pacifist methods, he said that "if the Tibetan people used violence they would not benefit from sympathy and growing support, coming even from the Chinese people."

The spiritual leader's address to the assembly was attended by all the political parties, with the exception of Herri Batasuna, the political wing of the Basque extremist organisation ETA.

The Dalai Lama also had talks with regional premier, Jose Antonio Ardanza.

The last day of his three-day visit to the Basque country was marked by a gun attack in the Renteria area of Guipuzcoa province which wounded a prison guard. Police attributed the attack to ETA.

The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner will travel to France on Wednesday before going on to the United States.

China issued a warning to Spain, France and the United States that they should keep pledges to have no official contacts with the Tibetan spiritual leader.

The spiritual leader has lived in exile in India since a failed uprising in Tibet in 1959.