Dalai Lama's envoys head to China

Envoys for the Dalai Lama are reportedly going to China to hold talks with the government over the crisis in Tibet.

"During this brief visit, the envoys will take up the urgent issue of the current crisis in the Tibetan areas," the government-in-exile said in a statement on its website.

"They will convey His Holiness the Dalai Lama's deep concerns about the Chinese authorities handling of the situation and also provide suggestions to bring peace to the region."

After a crackdown on protests against Chinese rule in Tibet in March, there was an international call for talks between the Dalai Lama and China.

And in April Beijing abruptly announced it intended to meet his aides.

The envoys are due to arrive in China on Saturday for what the Tibetan side called "informal talks".

"We are hopeful that the Chinese are willing to address the Tibet issue realistically," Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman of the Dalai Lama, said from India, where the Tibetan government-in-exile is based.

Despite the offer of talks, China has accused Tibet's exiled spiritual leader of manipulating opinion and governments in the West.

China has blamed the exiled Buddhist leader's "clique" for unrest across Lhasa and other Tibetan areas, which it says was aimed at upstaging the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

There have been six rounds of dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama's envoys since 2002 with no breakthrough.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.