China denounces Dalai Lama's Brown meeting

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LONDON, May 24 (UPI) -- China Saturday denounced a meeting between the Dalai Lama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, saying the meeting interfered with its internal affairs.

The Dalai Lama and Brown held talks after the Tibetan spiritual leader spent part of Friday talking to members of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, urging them and the international community to devote more support to Tibet's efforts to gain autonomy from China, The Independent reported.

Xinhua, the state-run Chinese news agency, quoted Qin Gang, the country's foreign ministry spokesman, as saying of the Dalai Lama's meeting with Brown, "This interferes in China's internal affairs, and hurts Chinese people's feelings as well."

After his meeting with Brown, the Dalai Lama was to travel to Nottingham, England, where he is to spend five days talking with Tibetan refugees and others in the United Kingdom, the BCC said.

The network says Brown has been criticized for not meeting with the Dalai Lama at the prime minister's official residence on Downing Street, but at Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.