World Tibet Network News Wednesday, June 17, 1998

PARIS, June 17 (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama said on Wednesday he expects U.S. President Bill Clinton to raise the question of Tibetan autonomy when he visits China later this month.

The exiled spiritual leader of Tibet said, however, that he does not expect Clinton to achieve a breakthrough on the issue during his five-day visit to China beginning on June 25.

``It is difficult to hope for a major change in the immediate future, but we must constantly encourage dialogue,'' said the Dalai Lama, who arrived in Paris on Monday for a three-day visit to France.

Beijing hinted on Monday that it would take a hard line if Clinton

pressed the issue.

The Chinese embassy in Washington accused the Dalai Lama this week of seeking the ``restoration of feudal serfdom of old Tibet.''

In a letter published in the Washington Post on Monday the embassy

warned that the Tibetan people would never let this happen.

Clinton will be the first U.S. president to visit China since the army massacre of pro-democracy protesters around Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

Although there have been no signs that China will grant Tibet greater autonomy, Dalai Lama said he remained optimistic and committed to his cause.

``There are more signs of hope, so there is no reason to feel much

frustration,'' he told a group of French parliamentarians and reporters. ``China is in a period of change. Of that there can be no doubt.''

He had been invited to address the group by Socialist deputy Jack Lang, chairman of the National Assembly's committee on foreign affairs.

Chinese forces entered Tibet in 1950, ending centuries of near-total autonomy.

The Dalai Lama, the 14th in a line of Tibetan Buddhist leaders with that title, fled to India in 1959 to live in exile and lobby the international community to rally to his cause.

He was due to leave for Austria later on Wednesday.