Dalai Lama, Obama to attend religious meet

Dharamsala, Jan 31: Globe-trotting monk the Dalai Lama and US President Barack Obama will be together at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington next week, the second time in less than a year, his aides said here Saturday. "His Holiness is on a religious tour to the US and will attend the National Prayer Breakfast Feb 5 where the US President will also participate," a senior functionary in the Dalai Lama's office told IANS. He said so far there is no scheduled meeting between the spiritual leader and the US president. However, the US has already played down an official engagement between the two. "As he has done in the past, the president will see many religious leaders at the event, but we don't have any specific meeting with the Dalai Lama to announce," media reports, quoting National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan, said. Obama has met the Dalai Lama thrice. Every time the meetings prompted sharp reaction from the Chinese government, which views the Nobel Peace laureate as a hostile element who is bent on splitting Tibet from China.