Beijing: Angry at the Canadian top leadership's meetings with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, China today said it undermined the relations between the two countries and asked Ottawa to take corrective steps to avoid further damage to bilateral ties.

"The action of Canada has seriously hurt the feelings of China and undermined Canada-China relations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told the bi-weekly news briefing, expressing Beijing's "strong dissatisfaction and opposition" to Canada's move.

Canada's action violated basic norms governing international relations and "grossly interferes" in China's internal affairs, Liu said, after the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper became the first Premier of his country to hold formal talks with the Dalai Lama, ignoring Beijing s warnings.

China was against interference in its internal affairs through the Dalai Lama issue, he said, adding Tibet was an inseparable part of its territory and "Tibet is an internal affair of China".

The words and actions of the Dalai Lama in the past several decades showed that he was a political exile who was engaged in separatist activities in the guise of religion, Liu said.

Source : PTI