SYDNEY (AFP) — The Dalai Lama arrived in Australia Wednesday on the second leg of a five-country world tour which has brought protests from Beijing, but he will not be met by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, officials said.
Rudd is on a trip to Japan and Indonesia and his spokesman said he would not be back in time to meet the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard is also out of the country and the Dalai Lama will be met by Immigration Minister Chris Evans, who will be acting prime minister, and by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.
"This reflects the Dalai Lama's status as an international religious leader and the significant domestic interest in the Dalai Lama's visit, including from the Tibetan immigrant community in Australia," a government spokesperson said.
The Dalai Lama visited Britain last month, where he was met by Prime Minister Gordon Brown despite strong objections from Beijing.
China accuses the Nobel Peace Prize winner of fomenting secessionist unrest in Tibet, where a clampdown on dissent in March brought international criticism of Beijing's policies in the Himalayan region.
The Dalai Lama's representative in Australia, Tensing Atisha, told AFP that while there would be some disappointment that Rudd would not meet the monk, the decision was up to the government.
"We will go by the wish of the Australian government, whoever they think is appropriate to meet his holiness," he said.
The March unrest in Tibet will likely be the focus of the discussions between the Dalai Lama and the ministers, which will be held sometime this week.
"I'm sure the recent unrest in Tibet and ongoing human rights violations in Tibet will definitely come up," Atisha said.
China has accused the Dalai Lama of fomenting anti-Chinese violence in Tibet in March, including deadly riots that authorities say killed at least 21 people in the regional capital Lhasa.
The Tibetan government-in-exile in India says 203 Tibetans were killed and about 1,000 hurt in China's crackdown on the unrest.
Atisha said the Dalai Lama's international tour was not designed to maintain pressure on China over the crackdown, noting that it had been planned for some time and was a spiritual and teaching trip.
"His holiness has been invited by the Buddhist centres, the universities, the different communities," he said.
The Dalai Lama is due to head to the United States in July, France in August and Switzerland in October.
After teaching sessions in Sydney on Wednesday, he was due to attend a reception held by lawmakers from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, Atisha said.
The Australia Tibet Council support group said it was disappointed that Rudd would not meet the Dalai Lama but was pleased that the foreign minister would hold talks with the visiting monk.
"We're more focused on what comes out of the meeting rather than who he meets," spokesman Paul Bourke told AFP.
"We think really some statement needs to come from the meeting between the foreign minister and the Dalai Lama about moving the Tibet-China dialogue forward."
Spurred by international pressure over the unrest in Tibet, Chinese officials met the Dalai Lama's envoys in early May for a day of talks which led to an agreement to restart formal discussions that broke off last year.
Rudd, who met the Dalai Lama last year while he was still in opposition, publicly raised concerns over human rights issues in Tibet during a visit to Beijing in April and urged the Chinese leadership to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader.
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