BEIJING, May 7 (AFP) - China issued a clear warning for Tibetan officials to break all contacts with the exiled Dalai Lama Wednesday by convicting a senior monk of treason for sharing information about a Beijing-sponsored search for a soul boy.

Chadrel Rinpoche, head of the Chinese team that searched for the new Panchen Lama the number two in Tibetan Buddhism was sentenced to six years in jail for plotting to split China and leaking state secrets by colluding with separatist forces abroad, Xinhua reported.

The sentence was handed down on April 21 by the Shigatse Intermediate Court in Tibet, and stems from Beijing's fury in May 1995 when the Dalai Lama the head of Tibetan Buddhism publically named the new reincarnation of the Panchen Lama ahead of China.

"Chadrel Rinpoche was a very, very senior religious figure trusted by Beijing to head the search committee for the Panchen Lama," said Tsering Shakya, research coordinator at the London-based Tibet Information Network.

"His conviction is just to do with passing information onto the Dalai Lama ... and is a clear message that Beijing will now consider any contact with the Dalai Lama in the context of splitting the motherland and leaking state secrets," he added.

Chadrel was formerly the abbot of the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, which is the seat of the Panchen Lama, and the vice chairman of the Tibet Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

He "seriously jeopardised national unification and the unity of ethnic groups, damaged the stability and development of Tibet and committed the crime of splitting the country," the official news agency quoted the court verdict as saying.

The Dalai Lama named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama on May 14, 1995, sparking immediate outrage from China.

The six-year-old boy had apparently been top of the list for the Beijing-sponsored team and China charged Chadrel with giving his name to the Dalai Lama.

China immediately dropped the boy from its list while Chadrel disappeared into China's public security network three days later.

He was not heard of again until Beijing announced in November 1995 that another six-year-old boy, Gyaincain Norbu, was the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama.

As the choice was announced, Xinhua quoted monks from the Tashilhunpo Monastery as denouncing Chadrel for being a fraud and violating Buddhist doctrine and discipline.

In June 1996, Chadrel was then expelled from the CPPCC for "violating religious rituals and historical conventions in the search for the Panchen Lama."

However, China never admitted to holding or charging Chadrel until it announced his sentence Wednesday.

Chadrel was convicted alongside the deputy director of the Panchen Lama's official residence, Chamba Chung, and a branch manager of the Gangjian Corp. of Tibet, named Samdrup.

The two got prison sentences of four and two years respectively. Xinhua said the case had been held behind closed doors as it related to state secrets and said "all three confessed everything."

China turbulent rule over the mountainous region of Tibet has been closely linked to the fate of its two top religious figures ever since an abortive anti-Chinese uprising in 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled to India and the Panchen Lama stayed behind.

When the 10th Panchen Lama died in 1989, Beijing was quick to emphasize its final authority over the choice of his successor, because one of the Panchen Lama's main roles will be to choose the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama when the present holder dies.

China took control of Tibet in 1951, but claims that the region has been part of China since the thirteenth century.