TIBETAN TEAM TO HOLD `OPEN-MINDED' TALKS IN CHINA

A high-level delegation of Tibetan exiles will visit China for "open-minded" talks with Beijing over their decades-old demand for independence, a Tibetan leader said yesterday.

Karma Gyatsho said a team headed by Gyalo Dundrup, brother of Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, would visit China soon. He could not give exact dates.

Mr. Dundrup visited Beijing in June following a rare Chinese invitation to the Tibetans.

"The delegation will not have an agenda," said Mr. Gyatsho, a deputy in Tibet's 46-member parliament-in-exile in the north Indian city of Dharmsala. "We will try to explore a solution without any preconditions."

The Dalai Lama and about 100,000 Tibetan refugees have been living in India since 1959 when the Chinese crushed their pro-independence uprising.