Former US president asked to send team to make recommendations on easing tensions

Former US president Jimmy Carter has been invited by China to send a group of experts to Tibet to make possible recommendations on resolving differences between Beijing and the Dalai Lama.

Mr Carter, who was passing through Hong Kong after a visit to the mainland to observe village-level elections, said the experts also would speak to religious leaders in China and make recommendations on expanding religious freedoms.

He has maintained good relations with China's leaders since he normalised relations between Washington and Beijing in 1979 and has been supportive of China's moves towards economic and political modernisation.

In an interview with the Sunday Morning Post, the former president said two areas of concern he had raised with the Chinese leadership were over Tibet and the requirement for Christian congregations and other religious groups to register with authorities.

'Those are the two concerns about human rights that cause the most misunderstanding between the United States and China,' he said.

Mr Carter said that though the Dalai Lama expressed his views frequently, 'the policy or attitude of the Chinese Government are not clearly understood'.

'When I talk privately, they say any time the Dalai Lama or his representatives are willing to say that there is just one China, and that Tibet is part of China, they will meet and discuss the matter with them. Somehow that never happens,' he said.