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Dalai Lama, prime minister of Canada to meet in Ottawa

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet with exiled Tibetan spiritual and political leader the Dalai Lama, Harper's office said on Friday.

His office did not reveal the subjects to be discussed in the meeting, which has upset Beijing.

This will be the first time a Canadian prime minister meets the Dalai Lama in public.

The meeting will take place tomorrow, in spite of Chinese warnings that it could hurt bilateral relations.

The office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday he would meet the Tibetan religious leader in Harper's suite in parliament tomorrow afternoon and would allow photographers to record the event.

Harper's predecessor Paul Martin met the Dalai Lama in 2004 privately, at the home of the Catholic archbishop in Ottawa.

"It is a major step forward," executive director of the Canada-Tibet Committee Dermod Travis said.

The Dalai Lama will also meet Governor-General Michaelle Jean, representative of Canada's formal head of state, Queen Elizabeth, and will meet with leaders of the opposition parties.

The 72-year-old Buddhist leader -- who is only the third person to receive honorary Canadian citizenship -- is scheduled to make public addresses in Ottawa and Toronto next week.

Harper, who took power in February last year, has clashed publicly with China over human rights but his office denied he was trying to step up pressure.

"We're not intending to ratchet anything up but we are intending to honor his [the Dalai Lama's] commitment to human rights," Harper spokeswoman Carolyn Stewart-Olsen said.

Last week US President George W. Bush and leaders of Congress gave the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal.

China canceled an annual human rights dialogue with Germany to show its displeasure over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting last month with the Dalai Lama.

Chinese Ambassador Lu Shumin (盧樹民) was quoted in Friday's Ottawa Citizen as warning Canada to be careful about matters involving Tibet and Taiwan, as they bear on China's sovereignty.

"Any failure to do so will undoubtedly jeopardize our bilateral relations and will also undermine the fundamental interests of Canada in the long term," it quoted the ambassador as saying.
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