Dalai Lama postpones Taiwan trip under China pressure

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader told Taiwanese reporters in the Czech Republic on Wednesday that he still plans to visit Taipei in November or December despite the pressure from Beijing.

"My visit certainly will take place," he told ETTV and TVBS cable news reporters. "But I might have to postpone it a little bit." The Dalai Lama was in Prague attending the Forum 2000 conference, an annual gathering of political leaders, philosophers and spiritual figures discussing mankind's future.

The United Daily News, a leading Taiwanese newspaper, quoted the spiritual leader Thursday as saying that his planned Taiwan trip has become more complicated because his brother, Gyalo Thondup, recently returned from a visit to China with a certain "message." But the Dalai Lama refused to elaborate, the report said. China considers both Taiwan and Tibet parts of China and has accused the Dalai Lama and Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian of wanting to split the motherland.

The Dalai Lama fled his Himalayan homeland after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. His 1997 visit to Taiwan, his first ever to the island, drew fierce protests from China.

(klei/AP)