Dalai Lama to visit disputed Indian state: aides

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will visit Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian state claimed by China, on November 8, his aides said Thursday, despite opposition from Beijing.

The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after China crushed an anti-Chinese uprising in Tibet, is viewed as a "splittist" by Beijing, although he says he wants autonomy rather than full independence for his homeland.

"He will travel there on November 8 for about one week," an aide to the Dalai Lama told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that the spiritual leader would visit temples and a hospital for which he had helped raise funds.

Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Tibetan government in exile in the northern Indian hilltown of Dharamshala, confirmed the date without giving further details.

The Chinese government earlier this week said it was "firmly opposed" to the Dalai Lama's planned visit to Arunachal Pradesh state, in the far northeast of India.

"China is greatly concerned over the news. We believe this further exposes the Dalai Lama's nature of anti-China separatism, as is known to all," a foreign ministry spokesman told reporters on Tuesday.

Beijing's objections to the Dalai Lama's trip are the latest in a series of tensions to exacerbate prickly ties between India and China.

The two nations fought a border war in 1962 in which Chinese troops advanced deep into Arunachal Pradesh and inflicted heavy casualties on Indian troops.

India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres (14,700 square miles) of its Himalayan territory, while Beijing claims all of Arunachal Pradesh, which covers 90,000 square kilometres.