NEW DELHI (AFP) — The Dalai Lama has called a meeting of key Tibetan leaders later this year to review the ongoing peace talks with China, aides to the spiritual leader said Friday.
The Dalai Lama, who returned to his home in northern India on Tuesday after recovering from a brief illness that put him in hospital for four days, will convene the meeting in either November or December, they said.
Spokesman Tenzin Takhla said invitations had been sent to exiled Tibetan leaders involved in the campaign for greater autonomy for their Himalayan homeland, as well as representatives of non-governmental organisations.
"These meetings are convened every few years to discuss very important matters and now it will be soon," he told AFP by telephone from Dharamshala.
Another aide to the Dalai Lama, who did not want to be named, said members of Tibetan groups fighting for Tibetan independence had also been invited to the meeting in Dharamshala, home to the Tibetan government-in-exile.
"We so far have had seven rounds of talks with China (since 2002) but with little results and this very important meeting will now review the pace of the negotiations," he told AFP.
"The Dalai Lama will now want to chalk out a fresh course" for the talks with the Chinese, the aide added.
The Dalai Lama champions a "middle path" policy which espouses "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet, rather than full independence as many younger, more radical activists are demanding.
The Buddhist monk -- who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 -- fled into exile in India in 1959 following a failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule.
Still, China has vilified him as the "mastermind" of what it called a drive to sabotage the Olympics and destabilise the country.
Violent protests against Beijing's rule broke out across Tibet in March, sparking a heavy Chinese crackdown that drew global condemnation.
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