The door to consultation with the Dalai Lama is open even after a series of secessionist activities home and abroad, a senior official said Wednesday.

"The Dalai Lama is destroying the base for dialogue with the central government by stirring up violence in Tibet and encouraging the disruption of the Beijing Olympics," Sitar, deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said.

"But our door to dialogue with the Dalai Lama is still open if he truly gives up his pursuit of 'Tibet independence'," he said at a press conference organized by the State Council Information Office.

Sitar said the Dalai Lama should stop all violence, secessionist activities and disruptions of the Beijing Olympics to create necessary conditions for dialogue.

Sitar said the government has shown the utmost sincerity and patience in keeping contact with the Dalai Lama, and such contacts have never stopped.

Since 2002, the Dalai Lama's personal representatives have had six meetings with high-ranking CPC officials. And from 1979, the Dalai Lama has sent more than 20 delegations, which included many of the Dalai Lama's close relatives such as his sisters or brothers, to China.

They were taken to various areas, including Tibet, Yunnan, Guangxi and Hebei, to better understand economic development and the implementation of regional autonomy for ethnic groups, he said.

They had also discussed some issues of concern with government departments, Sitar said.

However, Sitar said there has been no substantial progress after so many contacts because the Dalai Lama is not sincere.

(Xinhua/China Daily April 10, 2008)