WASHINGTON, April 24 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the Dalai Lama agree on the importance of strong US-China relations, the State Department said Thursday after the two held talks here.

During the meeting, Albright also "reiterated the administration's support for the preservation of Tibetan religion and culture," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said.

She also reaffirmed that Washington wished a "dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama or his representatives to resolve differences," he said.

During a State Department visit that lasted slightly more than an hour, the Dalai Lama also met with John Shattuck, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, and with the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad.

Committee members "expressed their deep commitment to ending religious persecution in Tibet, including incidents of torture and the arbitrary arrest of Tibetan nuns and monks, as well as the destruction of religious sites and restrictions on religious expression, education and worship," Burns said.

Earlier Thursday, Beijing voiced "great indignation" at a meeting between US President Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama met officially Wednesday with US Vice President Al Gore, and the president joined the talks "in progress," a strategy aimed to minimize offense to China.

During the meeting, Clinton assured the spiritual leader he was concerned about protecting Tibet and called for direct talks between the exiled Himalayan god-king and Beijing, a White House spokesman said.

China on Thursday said such talks were not out of the question.

"The door to dialogue has long been open, but there is one condition ... the Dalai Lama must cease his separatist activities," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cui Tiankai told reporters in Beijing.

China seized control of Tibet in 1951, and the Dalai Lama fled into exile eight years later following an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.

The government-in-exile he has since headed in India is not recognized by any country, but the spiritual leader's campaign for Tibetan self-determination has won him international acclaim. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1989.