BEIJING, 24 July 1997 (AP) China will never grant Tibet the kind of autonomy it is allowing newly recovered Hong Kong, a top Communist Party official in Tibet says.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, has urged China to apply the same "one country, two systems" standard to Tibet that it has to Hong Kong and is looking at applying to Macau and Taiwan.

But Gyaincain Norbu, the head of Tibet's local government, dismissed the proposal as "totally impossible and unnecessary," the official Tibet Daily reported in its July 14 edition, seen Wednesday in Beijing.

Gyaincain Norbu said "the situations of Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are totally different."

Claiming Tibet has been Chinese territory since ancient times, Beijing sent troops into the Himalayan region in 1951 and has ruled it with an iron hand ever since.