Fellow Tibetan exiles welcomed the globetrotting 74-year-old monk as he arrived at his Washington hotel, starting a week in the US capital to feature spiritual teachings and talks with congressional leaders.

But for the first time since 1991, when the Dalai Lama held his first presidential meeting with George H.W. Bush, the White House declined talks with the Nobel Peace laureate.

Obama has sought broader ties with China, a major trade partner and biggest holder of the soaring US debt. China sent troops into Tibet in 1950 and in recent months has ramped up pressure on other nations to shun the Dalai Lama.

The State Department said Obama would see the Dalai Lama "at a mutually agreeable time." Supporters of the Tibetan leader are hoping for a meeting by year's end, after Obama pays his first presidential visit to China in November.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that Maria Otero, the US special coordinator on Tibet, would meet the Dalai Lama on his current trip.

"We've decided to meet with the Dalai Lama because of our respect for his position, for the fact that he is a revered spiritual leader," Kelly told reporters.

"Our position regarding China is clear, that we want to engage China. We think China is an important global player," Kelly said.

He added: "We also don't try and downplay some of the concerns we have about China and some of our disagreements with China in the area of human rights, religious freedom and freedom of expression."

But some supporters of the Dalai Lama were outraged by Obama's decision, fearing that China could interpret it as carte blanche to clamp down on dissent in the Himalayan territory.

"This is a strategic snub that sends the wrong message to Beijing and to China's religious communities and rights activists," said Leonard Leo, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a non-partisan government panel.

"Tibetans are being harassed, tortured and jailed right now for simple devotion to the Dalai Lama," he said.

"President Obama should demonstrate his unwavering support for those seeking to establish the rule of law, religious freedom or other human rights in China -- he can start by meeting with the Dalai Lama as soon as possible and speaking out forcefully during his November trip to China," he said.

The Dalai Lama's entourage, however, politely accepted Obama's decision.

Lodi Gyari, the Dalai Lama's negotiator in infrequent talks with Beijing, said the Tibetans took a "broader and long-term perspective" that it was better to meet after Obama's visit to China.

"The Dalai Lama has always been supportive of American engagement with China," Gyari said in a statement.

"Our hope is that the cooperative US-Chinese relationship that President Obama's administration seeks will create conditions that support the resolution of the legitimate grievances of the Tibetan people," he said.

Elliot Sperling, a Tibet expert at Indiana University, said the Dalai Lama's team was putting a good face on a bad situation as China's influence grows.

"Tibet's government-in-exile is in a sense playing along, hoping that this will make China more amenable to speaking with the Dalai Lama," Sperling said.

"But China's policy is very clear -- to bide its time until the Dalai Lama dies and in the meantime to whittle away whatever influence he has," he said.

China last year called off a summit with European leaders after French President Nicolas Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama. South Africa later refused even to let the Dalai Lama visit the country.

other Asian police states
Suu Kyi in offer to help lift sanctions
Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with a senior member of the ruling military after losing an appeal of her latest house detention.

The meeting was the first such contact with Myanmar's military dictators in nearly two years, and she is believed to have offered to help the government get international sanctions against the country lifted.

She met Aung Kyi, a retired major general who is also the regime's labor minister, for nearly an hour at a government guesthouse near her lakeside home in which she is serving another house detention.

It was the first time the two have met since January 2008, according to a report on the Irrawaddy news Web site.

"The meeting started at 1 pm and lasted about 45 minutes," said Nyan Win, Suu Kyi's lawyer and a spokesperson for her banned National League for Democracy party.

Suu Kyi sent a letter to the country's military leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, on Sept. 25 offering to cooperate with the junta to lift sanctions against the country, formerly called Burma. She also asked to meet with envoys from the United States, the European Union and Australia to learn more about the sanctions, said Win.

The two had met previously on several occasions after the regime's 2007 crackdown on Buddhist monk-led mass demonstrations, an issue that remains a flashpoint for the military rulers.

Police and armed forces in the city of Yangon, formerly Rangoon, are on alert this week to prevent protests by monks demanding an apology from the junta for the September 2007 crackdown.

The All Burma Monks' Alliance wants the regime to apologize for the violent suppression of the peaceful 2007 demonstration in the city of Pakokku. The alliance also wants the release of all monks imprisoned since the so-called Saffron Revolution, the movement that has grown out of the Pakokku demonstrations.

Suu Kyi, 64, was the winner of the country's 1990 general election, which the generals refused to recognize. She has since spent 14 of the past 19 years under some form of imprisonment including house arrest.

Last week Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, lost her appeal against her 18 months of house arrest that was handed down in a surprise move by the country's highest court in early August.

She faced up to five years in jail for breaking the terms of her previous house arrest after U.S. citizen John Yettaw swam across a lake and entered her home uninvited. He stayed for two days despite efforts by Suu Kyi and her two female aids to persuade him to leave.

Suu Kyi was initially given a sentence of three years in jail with hard labor, but this was immediately commuted to another house detention. Yettaw, although sentenced to seven years hard labor, has since been released back to the United States.

Also last week, Myanmar's traditional allies China, India and Russia joined an international call for Myanmar to release all political prisoners including Suu Kyi and allow them to take part in next year's elections.

The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council's 47 members unanimously adopted the resolution.

Suu Kyi is the leader of the League for Democracy Party. But her current house detention sentence, while appearing lenient, likely means she is not eligible to be a candidate the election that the generals plan for 2010.

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