Washington - President Bush and the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, will meet Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, this week at the end of his nine-city tour of the United States, US officials said yesterday.
The news is likely to annoy China, whose suppression of Tibetan nationalism has made the fate of the territory a deeply emotive issue in the US, where the Dalai Lama enjoys a kind of spiritual stardom enhanced by the support of such famous figures as actor Richard Gere. Mr Bush will have a private meeting tomorrow with "the Nobel laureate and world renowned spiritual leader," one US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
