The Portrait of a Jealousy Olympic Host -- China cancels Iran meeting
over Dalai Lama

China cancels Iran meeting over Dalai Lama

Mon Oct 15, 2007 3:16pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China pulled out of a meeting this week at which
world powers were to discuss further action against Iran in protest
against the U.S. Congress' plan to honor the Dalai Lama, the State
Department said on Monday.

The meeting in Berlin on Wednesday on the showdown with Iran over its
nuclear program has been postponed, probably until next week, said a
State Department official, who spoke on condition he not be named.

The Berlin meeting had been scheduled on the same day as the U.S.
Congress is set to honor the Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist spiritual
leader whom China shuns as a Tibetan separatist.

"They had indigestion over the presence of certain spiritual leaders (in
the United States) and an event with Congress," said the official, who
spoke on condition he was not named. "It is extraneous to Iranian
issues," he added.