German minister asks Beijing to end Tibet blackout (Roundup)

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier telephoned Beijing Tuesday and asked China to bring the violence in Tibet out into the open for the sake of 'maximum transparency,' aides in Berlin said.

A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said meanwhile she was 'open' to a fresh meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Beijing has protested angrily at western contacts with the Dalai Lama, whom it accuses of orchestrating protests by monks.

The Foreign Ministry announced Steinmeier's phone conversation about Tibet with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in advance.

It said Steinmeier appealed for 'maximum transparency regarding the events in Tibet.'

Yang had replied that China had invited Western journalists on a trip to Tibet to see for themselves. Following protests at the expulsion of journalists from Tibet, Beijing announced Tuesday it would set up an escorted trip for about a dozen to Lhasa.

Steinmeier said he hoped the violence would cease permanently and called for a dialogue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama.

He had also told the Beijing official he did not regard a boycott of this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing in protest at Tibet policies as an appropriate response, a ministry spokesman said.

Thomas Steg, deputy government spokesman, earlier said calls for an Olympic boycott tended to 'distract from the need to move towards a political solution to the conflict.'

'We regard it as indispensable that both sides, the Dalai Lama and the government in Beijing, close their gap,' he said, adding that there was no alternative in Germany's view to negotiations.

Merkel had made plain 'that she was absolutely willing to meet again with the Dalai Lama on an appropriate occasion, speak to him and discuss current topics,' said Steg.

However Merkel would not be in Germany at the time of the spiritual leader's scheduled spring visit to the country.

Merkel received the Dalai Lama, who lives in India, last year in her Berlin office, prompting an angry protest from Beijing.

The German Federation of Olympics Sports, or DOSB, said Monday that there would definitely be no boycott of the Games. Athletes on the official German team voiced relief, saying the event would be height of their careers for many.

DOSB general director Michael Vesper said on ZDF television it was 'naive' to suppose people in China or Tibet would be better off if athletes stayed away from the Games.

But a senior member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party criticized the DOSB Tuesday for pledging attendance at the games and thus taking a boycott over Tibet out of play.

Ruprecht Polenz, who chairs the federal parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, said on SWR television that given the situation in Tibet, it would have been smarter to leave attendance at the Games this summer open, 'thus not ruling a boycott out.'

Polenz is not a member of the Merkel government, a coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, but is a respected voice on foreign policy issues.