The Dalai Lama says that he can attend the Beijing Olympics if China invites him, in the latest effort to open talks with China.

"If China invites the Dalai Lama, he can attend the Beijing Olympics, but under one condition, that is there must be a relaxation of suppression in Tibet," Prime Minister Samdong Rinpoche said in Dharamsala, the exiled government's base in north India.

"China must release all prisoners in Tibet and treat the injured. Otherwise, if the Dalai Lama goes to Beijing to watch the opening of the Beijing Olympics, how would Tibetans feel?"

In an interview with dpa, the Dalai Lama officially expressed frustration at China's refusal to talk with the exiled government to quell the unrest in Tibet, which has reportedly left at least 135 Tibetans dead and thousands injured and arrested.

The riots, which were to mark the 49th anniversary of the 1959 anti-Chinese uprising and to seek world attention on the Tibet issue ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August, climaxed on March 14 when Chinese troops and police cracked down on the protesters.

China said the Dalai Lama, in exile in Dharamsala since 1959, incited the riots, and accused Tibetans of burning, looting and killing Chinese.

The Dalai Lama has denied involvement. His government said it had received information that the looters and attackers were Chinese police disguised as Tibetans.

In 1949, after the founding of the Peoples' Republic of China, Chinese troops occupied hitherto autonomous but not sovereign Tibet.

SG/HAR