Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's (
Wen, who has been paying his first visit to Europe since taking office in March of last year, is to meet Blair at his Downing Street office tomorrow, with a joint press conference to follow afterwards.
Iraq is certain to be high on their agenda, given that Britain and China are both permanent members of the UN Security Council, where a fresh resolution on postwar Iraq is in the making.
But their talks could be difficult on the subjects of human rights, Tibet and the former British colony of Hong Kong, where Bei-
jing last month ruled out the introduction of full democracy in 2007.
"We have got our differences, but this is a mature relationship we have with the Chinese government and we can have a dialogue about this," a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
The Tibet Society in London urged Blair -- who visited Beijing and Hong Kong last July -- to meet the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, when he comes to the British capital on May 28.
"We should recognize the Dalai Lama's demand for Tibetan political autonomy within our overall policy towards China," a spokeswoman for the Tibet Society said Friday.
Beijing sees the Dalai Lama as a separatist, and strongly protests any meeting that he has with a foreign leader -- most recently, with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Ottawa last month.
Besides Blair, Wen is to meet Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, International Development Secretary Hilary Benn and Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
Straw will also meet separately with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.
After his London stay, Wen is to proceed to Ireland -- which currently holds the rotating EU presidency -- to conclude an 11-day tour of five European states, accompanied by an 80-strong economic delegation.
His trip began May 3 in Berlin, and later took him to Brussels for talks with EU officials, then Rome.
In the Italian capital on Friday, Wen extended an olive branch to Western industrialists, saying China's rapid growth poses no threat to their production.
The attractiveness of China's vast market for investors dominated the start of Wen's visit to Rome as he addressed Italian industrialists with Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
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