Dalai Lama not likely to visit Taiwan for now: President Ma

TAIPEI (AFP) – Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou on Wednesday made it clear that Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is not likely to visit the island for now, as Taipei's ties with Beijing improve.

"Religious leaders are welcome to visit Taiwan... but I think at the current moment, the timing is not appropriate for that," Ma told members of the Taipei Foreign Correspondents Club, without going into details.

His remarks came after the Dalai Lama voiced his desire to visit Taiwan in a recent interview with a local newspaper in Dharamsala, the town in northern India where his exiled government had been based since a failed uprising in 1959.

But analysts said the Ma Ying-jeou administration is not likely to grant permission for such a controversial visit, which would irk Beijing.

"This is a sensitive issue as any visit by the Dalai Lama has political implications," said George Tsai, political science professor at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei.

"Should he come, Beijing would be angry. It would do no good to Taiwan or the cross-Strait relationship," he said.

The Dalai Lama is reviled by the Chinese government, which has branded him a "monster" and accused him of trying to split the nation.

He made a historic first trip to Taiwan in March 1997 and visited the island again in 2001, triggering strong condemnation from China.

Cross-Strait tensions have eased since the China-friendly Ma took office earlier this year, promising to improve trade and tourism links with Beijing following eight years of strained relations under the previous pro-independence government.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after a civil war, but Beijing regards the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2008120...napoliticstibet