Britain called for a resumption of negotiations between China and Tibetan representatives yesterday after Gordon Brown announced that he had spoken to the Chinese Premier and would meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in May.

Last night China’s state media admitted for the first time that riots had spread to two provinces outside Tibet, but Beijing claimed that order was returning to the restive Himalayan region.

Mr Brown took the Commons by surprise when he informed MPs that Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Prime Minister, had told him in a telephone conversation yesterday that he was ready to enter into a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, provided that he did not support the total independence of Tibet and that he renounced violence.

Downing Street said that the Dalai Lama had already satisfied both conditions in recent statements and that Britain believed that conditions were in place for talks to resume between Beijing and Tibet’s spiritual leader.

Mr Brown’s announcement that he would see the Dalai Lama was welcomed by David Cameron, who will also meet him on his visit to London.

During their conversation, for which diplomats on both sides had prepared for several days, Mr Brown also called on China to show restraint in Tibet. He told Mr Wen of his intention to meet the Dalai Lama.

The formal reaction from China was one of dismay, however. China’s Foreign Ministry urged Britain to understand the Dalai Lama’s “true face” and offer him no support, the Xinhua news agency reported. A ministry spokesman said: “China is seriously concerned about the message. As we have repeatedly pointed out, Dalai is a political refugee engaged in activities of splitting China under the camouflage of religion.”

Beijing was enraged last year when Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, met the Dalai Lama, and relations were chilly for several months. By contrast, President Bush telephoned Chinese leaders to let them know of his decision to meet him.

That tactic, along with a promise to announce that he would attend the Olympics opening ceremony, mollified Beijing. It issued its standard statements of protest, but there was no sign that ties were affected by the meeting.

Sources close to Beijing told The Times yesterday that the Chinese Government remained enraged with the Dalai Lama over last week’s riots and there was no change in China’s conditions for talks with the Tibetan monk.

Beijing is unlikely to welcome other comments from Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office Minister, who said that the situation in Tibet could damage the reputation of the Olympics and China’s own interests. He called on British athletes to “speak the truth” about what was going on in China.

He told peers: “We will expect to see our athletes respect both the values of Britain — courtesy and respect for the country where the Games are — but also that supremely important value of speaking the truth as they see it and speaking openly of what they see.”

Britain, along with other Western countries, will use this year’s Beijing Olympics to put measured diplomatic pressure on the Chinese Government. Continued violence in Tibet will add to calls for Western nations to boycott the opening ceremony at the Games, or even the whole event. With the Olympics being staged in London in 2012, the Government has no intention of doing so.

Mr Brown told MPs: “I made it absolutely clear that there had to be an end to violence in Tibet. I also called for restraint, and I called for an end to the violence by dialogue between the different parties.”

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, visited Mr Wen in China last month and emphasised yesterday that Britain would not boycott the Olympics over human rights. Tibetan exiles say that99 demonstrators have been killed in the Chinese crackdown. Beijing says that rioters in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, have killed 13.

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