“It’s too early to tell if the meeting will produce results or is just for PR purposes in advance of the Olympics,” said a vice-president of the International Campaign for Tibet Mary Beth Markey.

Dalai Lama was, however, cautious in his approach to the offer for talks. “It depends on what kind of talks. If they are serious talks, they are welcome. But merely seeing face to face does not mean much,” he told reporters at the New Delhi airport. Despite the possibility of dialogue, China’s state media kept up their condemnation of Dalai Lama.

The People’s Daily, which is the voice of the Communist Party, carried news of the dialogue offer alongside a separate story that said Dalai Lama was unfit as a Buddhist leader.

The Tibet Daily also quoted an official repeating China’s position that Dalai Lama was responsible for the series of protests in Lhasa.

“The splittist Dalai clique is the main source of influence over Tibet’s stability,” the paper said.

China has sent more troops into Tibet and ethnic Tibetan parts of western China to combat pro-independence groups.

Military convoy

On Saturday, a convoy of military vehicles was seen driving toward Tibet’s second city of Shigatse, though there was no sign of unrest in the area.

Analysts said carrying out crackdowns and offering concessions at the same time was part of China’s strategy.

“All the attacks on Dalai Lama can be seen as pre-negotiation tactics designed  to bolster domestic nationalism and at the same time to weaken his position in any future talks,” said Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University.

“It’s hard for people to see good intentions behind Beijing’s moves,” he said.

US warning

The US government warned Americans travelling to China of a “heightened risk” of terrorist attack in the Asian country “in the near future.”

The warning was issued as Interpol chief Ronald Noble told a security conference on the Games in Beijing that it was possible “Al-Qaeda or some other terrorist group will attempt to launch a deadly terrorist attack there.”