Paris:The Dalai Lama was set to begin today the official programme of his visit to France with the blessing of a Vietnamese Buddhist temple outside of Paris.

The 73-year-old Tibetan spiritual guide flew into Paris yesterday for the 12-day visit at the height of the Beijing Olympics, having shelved plans to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy for fear of angering China.

He will lead a private ceremony early today at the centre in Veneux-les-Sablons outside Paris, before beginning his official visit with the blessing of a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in nearby Evry, in the presence of 1,500 followers.

The Nobel peace laureate will tomorrow hold closed-door talks with French lawmakers, but no government-level meetings are planned.

Instead of Sarkozy, first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will attend the inauguration of a temple in Lodeve in southern France Friday next week.

The rest of his visit that runs to August 23,which coincides almost exactly with the Beijing Games, will be devoted to religious visits in northwestern Normandy and Brittany and a six-day teaching cycle in the western city of Nantes.

Planned more than two years ago, the Dalai Lama s French visit suddenly turned political after a Chinese crackdown on unrest in Tibet in March that sparked international outrage.

Tentative plans for a meeting with Sarkozy were dropped, at the Dalai Lama s request, to avoid angering China, Sarkozy s office and members of the Buddhist leader s entourage said.

Beijing, which accuses the Dalai Lama of fomenting unrest in Tibet to sabotage the Olympics, warned Paris a meeting would have "serious consequences" for bilateral relations.
Source : PTI