The prospect of a historic meeting between the Dalai Lama and China's President Jiang Zemin has improved sharply in recent days, with the Austrian Foreign Minister, Mr Wolfgang Schussel, acting as an EU mediator between the exiled Tibetan leader and the Chinese government, according to diplomatic sources in Beijing.
Speculation is growing that the Dalai Lama, after 39 years in exile, is preparing to issue a statement on the political status of Tibet which would allow the Chinese government to reopen negotiations and permit him to visit China, but not Tibet.
The Dalai Lama has expressed the wish to visit a holy mountain in Shangxi province.
"We are in a pre-negotiation mode; this is a critical initial period," said Mr Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, and the Dalai Lama's representative in Washington.
"There has been progress through various channels for the past year and a half," he told the South China Morning Post. "His Holiness is preparing a statement and we are trying through informal channels to get feedback."
For Beijing to agree to a meeting, the statement would have to meet the Chinese leadership's demand that the Dalai Lama recognise Tibet as an integral part of China, diplomats say.
President Jiang told President Clinton in July that as long as the Dalai Lama acknowledged that Tibet was part of China, "the door to dialogue and negotiation is open." Every western leader to visit China in recent months has recommended that negotiations broken off five years ago be resumed.
In September the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, suggested in Beijing that the Northern Ireland peace agreement could be a model for dialogue between the Chinese leadership and the 62-year-old Nobel laureate.
Renewed negotiations between China and Taiwan, with fundamental issues shelved while practical matters are discussed, are also seen as a model.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Tang Guoqiang, confirmed that "the central government has certain channels of contacts with the Dalai Lama," but warned that if the Dalai Lama tried to rally world opinion outside "existing channels" it would show he was insincere.
Mr Tang said the Dalai Lama must make public announcements to recognise that Tibet is an inalienable part of China. In Germany last week the Dalai Lama said that time was running out for Tibetans because of "cultural genocide". He repeated his proposal for a "middle way" which would allow Tibet cultural autonomy while not seceding from the People's Republic of China.
His private secretary, Mr Kelsang Gyaltsen, said the expected statement would be "constructive and conciliatory."