Zhengzhou, July 29 (PTI): With the latest round of negotiations with envoys of the Dalai Lama failing to break the impasse on the vexed Tibet issue, China has insisted that it was "pointless" to have talks if the spiritual leader was sticking to his quest for "Tibetan independence."

While insisting that the door for talks remained "wide open," Nyima Ciren, vice chairman of the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, insisted yesterday that the Dalai Lama would first have to recognise Tibet as a part of China and abandon his attempts to split the region from the motherland.

The Dalai Lama must take concrete actions to end his quest for "Tibetan independence," which is a premise for him to negotiate with the Chinese government, Cering told Beijing-based foreign correspondents visiting Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

Dalai Lama's pursuit of "Tibet independence" infringes on China's sovereignty. Any negotiations with him shall be pointless if he sticks to his secessionist stance, he insisted.

Referring to the latest round of negotiations between China and envoys of the India-based Dalai Lama, he declined to comment but noted that since 1979, twenty delegations of the exiled spiritual leader have visited Tibet or other Tibetan areas.

"It all depends on Dalai Lama's attitudes, whether he is willing to give up seeking Tibetan independence, whether he is ready to end his acts of sabotage."

The Dalai Lama's call for a "high-degree autonomy for Tibet" and the establishment of a "greater Tibet area" was just a tactical readjustment on his part and did not reflect any substantial change in his stance, the official insisted.

"If he (the Dalai Lama) has really abandoned his pursuit of Tibet independence, he would have taken solid actions. But so far we have not seen any such actions," he said.

Beijing and envoys of the Dalai Lama, who fled to India from Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, have been holding secret talks since 1979. The sixth round of contacts since 2002 ended early this month without apparent progress on the Tibet issue as well as on the future of the aging Dalai Lama.

"The Dalai Lama is not only a religious figure. He is first and foremost a politician. We are against the Dalai Lama and his separatist activities, not his religion," the senior Tibetan official said.

The majority of Tibetan people support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the official claimed, pointing out that Tibet has registered an impressive 14.7 per cent economic growth in the first half of this year.

However, some people are attempting to overthrow the socialist system with the help of the Dalai Lama and in the name of protecting national interests or religion, he alleged.

"We are firmly opposed to such actions," said Cering, stressing that "Tibetan people cherish their current happy life as they cherish their eyes."

The Dalai Lama says he wants greater autonomy for his homeland, not independence, but China considers him a "separatist."

Asked to comment on the fate of the Tibetan boy picked by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second-highest ranking spiritual leader, Cering said the boy was studying at a high school in Tibet.

He is living a normal life in Tibet. He is studying at a senior high school, his brothers and sisters are either studying or working, Cering said.

"The boy is patriotic. He does not want his life to be disturbed. We respect his wish," he added. Western human rights groups have said the boy has been under house arrest since 1995, when he was six-years-old.