Seattle: The Dalai Lama wrapped up a five-day visit to Seattle here ahead of talks with a US envoy next week on the situation in the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's homeland. The saffron-robed leader completed his involvement in the "Seeds of Compassion" conference yesterday with a talk at the University of Washington, where he appeared with fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

During the appearance, the Dalai Lama made no mention of Tibet, which has been the subject of a crackdown by China following violent protests in mid-March, the worst to rock the Himalayan territory for years. From Seattle, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to attend conferences at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor before heading to Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.

On Monday, officials announced that the Dalai Lama would meet US President George W Bush's special envoy on April 21,in the highest level meeting between the US administration and the exiled leader since the crackdown. The move was criticized by China, which suggested that Washington was meddling in the internal affairs of the country.

"We believe that the Tibetan affairs are internal affairs of China, and (are) strongly opposed to external interference in this respect," Wang Baodong, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, told AFP. The Dalai Lama, who has been living in India since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising in 1959,arrived in Seattle last Thursday on his first overseas trip since the crisis erupted.

Source : PTI