Exiled Tibetan PM positive about talks

BEIJING - Tibet's prime minister in exile said he was hopeful of a positive outcome from talks with Chinese officials beginning Sunday, but cautioned not to expect too much from the first meeting between the two sides since violent anti-government protests erupted in Tibet.
Talks were scheduled to last for a day or two in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, said Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharmsala, India.
We are positive that something good will come out of it,' Samdhong Rinpoche told The Associated Press.
A report by China's official Xinhua News Agency confirmed the Dalai Lama's envoys, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, would meet with two vice ministers of the United Front Work Department, designed to deal with influential people in groups outside of China's Communist Party.
Two of the Dalai Lama's representatives planned to push for peace in Tibetan areas of China and address Beijing's accusations that the spiritual leader has been masterminding the recent unrest, Samdhong Rinpoche told a public rally in Dharmsala.
Our hopes are high, but this is just a small step in a long process,' he said.
The Tibetan government-in-exile has called the meetings informal talks with representatives of the Chinese leadership.'
International critics have accused China of heavy-handed tactics in quelling protests in Tibet and other Tibetan areas of western China. Some experts believe Beijing agreed to meet with the Dalai Lama's envoys to ease that criticism ahead of the Olympics, which begin in August.
China says 22 people died in violence in Tibet's capital of Lhasa in March, while overseas Tibet supporters say many times that number have been killed in protests and the security crackdown.
Beijing argues the Dalai Lama and his supporters organized the riots with the aim of breaking the far western Himalayan region of Tibet away from Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet amid a failed uprising in 1959, says he is seeking meaningful autonomy for Tibet rather than independence from Chinese rule. He has decried cultural genocide' in his homeland, which has a unique Buddhist tradition distinct from the rest of China.