The doors of communication between China's central government and the Dalai Lama are wide open, Zhuang Congsheng, official with the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said Thursday.

Zhuang made the remark at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

So long as the Dalai Lama abandons his position on seeking Tibetan independence and publicly recognizes Tibet as an inalienable part of Chinese territory, contacts and discussions between him and the central government on his own future can be carried out, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2003)