by Sarah Jackson-Han

WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (AFP) - State Department Director of Policy Planning Greg Craig was named Friday as special coordinator for US policy on Tibet, in a move sure to annoy Chinese President Jiang Zemin as he winds up his US tour.

Craig's role will be to "preserve the unique religious, cultural, and linguistic heritage of Tibet and to promote a substantive dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives," the State Department said.

Spokesman James Rubin said Washington hopes such a dialogue will begin "as soon as possible."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms was "very pleased with the appointment," his spokesman, Marc Thiessen, said, noting that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was personally involved in the Craig's selection.

Because the position does not carry the rank of ambassador, Craig is not required to win Senate confirmation.

Craig, 52, served from 1984-88 as senior adviser on foreign and defense issues to Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. He was a partner at the law firm of Williams and Connolly before joining the State Department.

Craig is a graduate of Harvard, Cambridge, and Yale universities, and he has five children.

International Campaign for Tibet director John Ackerly also welcomed the nomination, calling Craig "senior, and extremely capable."

"His appointment while Jiang is on US soil does probably indicate a level of seriousness on the part of the administration and frustration that they were not able even to have a meaningful discussion of the issue, let alone make any progress," Ackerly said.

The Clinton administration found itself in an awkward diplomatic spot this week, having said publicly that it would name a Tibetan coordinator by November 1, then scheduled Jiang's visit to last through this weekend.

Washington recognizes Beijing as the sovereign power in Tibet, a Himalayan region annexed and occupied by China in the 1950s.

It has nonetheless urged dialogue and reconciliation between the Chinese authorities and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet after a failed uprising against China in 1959.

Human rights groups say religious repression and other abuses, including torture, occur routinely at the hands of the Chinese authorities there, while many Tibetan Buddhist cultural icons have been destroyed.

In a television interview Thursday, Jiang described Tibet as "absolutely

an inalienable part of Chinese territory," adding: "This issue is an internal affair of China."

He stopped short, however, of condemning the special coordinator's post as an example of American meddling as Chinese officials have done in the past and cited "channels for us to gradually achieve" a settlement.

In a measure of growing US public awareness of Tibet as a human rights issue, protesters urging Beijing to stop its heavy-handed treatment of the region have dogged Jiang on every stop during his six-city US tour.

But the 71-year-old Chinese leader dug in his heels on human rights and publicly sparred with US President Bill Clinton on the issue at a joint news conference after their summit Wednesday.

"It's just natural for our two countries to have some different views on this issue due to such different aspects that exist between the two countries," Jiang said Thursday, insisting he was unruffled by the protestors.