Tibet to stay on Olympic torch route despite riots

By Nick Mulvenney and Lindsay Beck

BEIJING (Reuters) - China vowed on Wednesday to take the Olympic torch to Tibet despite deadly riots there and said it was in a "life or death struggle" over the Himalayan region with "the Dalai Lama clique".

In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao had told him on Wednesday Wen was prepared to talk with Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhists, under certain conditions.

"The premier told me that, subject to two things that the Dalia Lama has already said -- that he does not support the total independence of Tibet and that he renounces violence -- that he would be prepared to enter into dialogue with the Dalai Lama," Brown said.

Brown told parliament he would meet the Dalai Lama during a visit to Britain in May. China's foreign ministry said it was "seriously concerned" by Brown's statement.

Beijing and envoys of the Dalai Lama have been holding a slow-motion dialogue since 1979. The sixth round of contacts since 2002 ended in July last year without apparent progress.

The crackdown in Tibet and nearby provinces, following riots that may have killed dozens of people, have sparked calls for a boycott of the August Beijing Games that China wants to turn into a celebration of its emergence as a world power.

Tibetan activists want the Olympic torch relay to skip Tibet.

But Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, told a news conference the relay would proceed as scheduled because the situation in Tibet has stabilized.

Protests over Tibet are likely to mar the torch relay as it travels through 19 cities outside China on its 97,000-km journey around the world in April.

"We hold the opinion that those activities are a challenge to the Olympic Charter, a challenge to all those who love the Olympic movement around the world," Jiang said.

"Those activities will not win the hearts and minds of people and are doomed to failure."

China accuses the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the monk-led protests and rioting -- the most serious in the Himalayan region for nearly two decades -- to try to wreck the August 8-24 Games.

"The Dalai is a jackal in Buddhist monk's robes, an evil spirit with a human face and the heart of a beast," Tibet's Communist Party secretary, Zhang Qingli, told a teleconference of regional officials, according to the China Tibet News.

"We are engaged in a fierce battle of blood and fire with the Dalai clique, a life-and-death struggle between the foe and us".

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