Dalai Lama resdy for talk

By Bijender Sharma

Dharmshala March 20, 2008---The Dalai Lama said here on Thursday he was willing to meet Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, and reiterated he was not seeking independence for Tibet. ."The whole world knows Dalai Lama is not seeking independence, one hundred times, thousand times I have repeated this. It is my mantra — we are not seeking independence," he clarified to reporters in Mclodganj near Dharmsa."The Tibet problem must be solved between Tibetan people and Chinese people," he said. The Dalai Lama, said he would be prepared to meet with any Chinese leaders, including.But he made it clear that he would not travel to Beijing for talks unless there was "a real concrete development" in relations between the Beijing government and Tibet.The Dalai Lama has long maintained he is not seeking independence for Tibet but he wants dialogue with China aimed at giving Tibetans autonomy while remaining under Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama has said in the past that he would meet Chinese leaders. His representatives re-established formal contact formal contact with China in 2002 after years of silence. They have met six times since, most recently last June in China.

.Many Tibetans harbor a deep resentment toward Hu, who served as Tibet's Communist Party chief beginning in 1989, marking a return to hard-line policies after a period of relative openness.The Chinese government said the Dalai Lama's words were not enough."For the Dalai Lama, we not only listen to what he says, but more importantly, we focus on what he does," said