Gordon Brown appears to have solved the dilemma on whether to join fellow Western leaders in boycotting the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics: he has decided that he was never going to go in the first place.

Downing Street "confirmed" last night that the Prime Minister did not plan to attend the ceremony on August 8. Like Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and, possibly, President Bush, he will be staying away.

Unlike his peers, however, he will not be boycotting the ceremony in protest against the Chinese crackdown in Tibet. A Downing Street spokeswoman said that Mr Brown had never said that he would go. "There is no change in our position," she said.

Having accepted an invitation during a visit to China in January, Mr Brown will be in Beijing 16 days later, for the closing ceremony when London picks up the Olympic baton from the 2008 hosts.

For Mr Brown's critics, however, it was either a fudge – or a gold medal U-turn.

Downing Street said that Mr Brown's spokesman had made his position clear during a lobby briefing on March 19 but it was overshadowed by the news that he was planning to meet the Dalai Lama, Tibet's long-exiled spiritual leader.

Mr Brown was less clear, however, during President Sarkozy's recent state visit and at a Downing Street press conference last week, when he was asked about the French leader's boycott threat. He said: "I think President Sarkozy said himself that he expected Britain, because we are going to host the next Olympics, to be present at the Olympic ceremonies and I will certainly be there."

The problem is that Mr Brown may be seen to have snubbed the Chinese, who reportedly expected him at both the opening and closing ceremonies, although Downing Street said today that he had spoken directly to the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao about his travel plans.

The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said last night that No 10 should have made the situation clear in the first place.

He told the BBC: "Chancellor Merkel in Germany and President Sarkozy in France saying quite specifically that they might not go to the opening ceremony shows that the debate has always been about the opening ceremony.

"So now suddenly to be asked to believe by No 10 that they never really intended to go in the first place either smacks of a rather odd way of going about things or just downright incompetence."

Curiously, as the global torch relay ahead of the Beijing Games was dogged by protests, the only international voice raised in support of the Chinese was that of the Dalai Lama.

Starting his first foreign trip since unrest broke out in Tibet on the 49th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent him into exile in India, the Dalai Lama said that he had personally urged the Tibetan community to respect the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco.

Speaking to reporters on a brief stopover in Japan, he jokingly put his fingers over his head in the shape of a devil's horns and said: “I really feel sad the government there almost demonises me. But it’s OK. I’m just a human being - hopefully not a demon."

He added "Some people create (the) impression we are anti-Chinese. So I make an appeal to Chinese brothers and sisters all over the world, particularly in mainland China - firstly we are not anti-Chinese."

The Dalai Lama repeated that he was not seeking independence for Tibet but autonomy and cultural freedoms within China for the Buddhist Himalayan territory.

“I support the Chinese host for the world game because China is the most populous nation, ancient nation,” the Dalai Lama said, adding that the Chinese "really deserve” the Olympics.