PARIS—Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner summoned the Chinese ambassador to France on Wednesday to ask him to explain his comments warning the French president not to meet the Dalai Lama.
Ambassador Kong Quan was widely quoted in the French press on Wednesday as saying there would be "serious consequences" if President Nicolas Sarkozy met Tibet's spiritual leader when he travels to Paris in August.
His threat angered French officials and Kouchner told reporters he had called in the ambassador for talks.
"We were very surprised by the Chinese ambassador's statement this morning and I have asked him to come and see me ... so that I can understand and that he can explain his position which seemed difficult to accept from France's point of view," Kouchner said.
Kong told reporters after the Kouchner meeting that he thought he had clarified the issue: "We talked about many things. I think he is satisfied.
"One should not interfere in the internal affairs of a country, in this case mine ... Tibet is a purely Chinese matter," he said.
The ambassador's warning about "serious consequences" appeared in newspapers on the day Sarkozy finally announced he would go to the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing next month, ending weeks of speculation about his attendance.
Sarkozy had said his presence in Beijing depended on China's willingness to talk to the Dalai Lama, comments that irritated China, which considers Tibet an internal affair.
The French Foreign Ministry later said in a statement that Kong had told Kouchner that Sarkozy would be welcome in Beijing and was invited to China without any conditions.
Two meetings between envoys of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and the Chinese government have taken place, and another is scheduled for October, a French official said.
Kong told reporters on Wednesday that the Dalai Lama was not only a religious leader but "above all someone who pursues separatist activities and leads a government in exile" and should not therefore be received by heads of state.
"We are firmly against this kind of meeting," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has met the Dalai Lama, drawing plaudits from human rights activists, but Sarkozy has not yet said if he will meet him.
