China's top Tibet [Images]an scholars accused the Dalai Lama [Images] of setting up two 'great obstacles', including demanding Greater Tibet, in the way of resolving the vexed issue.

"Changing the status quo of Tibet will also break the Chinese constitution and other relevant laws. During the negotiations, Dalai Lama's demands have set up great obstacles," Lhaba Pingchu, director general of China Tibetology Research Centre said on Friday.

Lhaba, who spoke to a select group of Beijing-based foreign correspondents who were allowed a rare visit to the CTRC, a major Chinese-government think-tank on Tibet issues, asserted that the India-based Dalai's demands have led to lack of progress during negotiations.

"During the negotiations, the Dalai Lama raised two very big problems - the Grand Tibetan Region and complete autonomy. However, his two demands does not match with the history of Tibet," Lhaba, who was born as a serf prior to the peaceful liberation of Tibet, said.

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He claimed that Tibetan people do not want a change in the status quo of their Himalayan region. The Dalai Lama's proposal to form a so-called greater Tibet goes against the Tibetan people's will, and his real intention is to snatch back control of Tibet, the researcher claimed.

"Historically speaking, Tibetans are all over China and they are not only in Tibet," Lhaba, who has the distinction of being the first Tibetan Professor coming from the minority community, said.

The Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, has been living in exile in India since 1959 when he fled after a failed uprising against Communist rule nine years after the takeover of his Himalayan homeland.

Lhaba said that since the democratic reforms of 1959, Tibet has implemented a highly autonomous system, and its people, freed from the bondage of serfdom, are living a happy life.

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"If you want to change this, it is really impossible. Tibet was previously under religious serfdom. The Tibetan people prefers socialism after liberation. If you want to change it, that is really impossible," he said, supporting the continued regime of the ruling Communist Party of China in Tibet.

He, however, welcomed the sporadic in-camera negotiations between Beijing [Images] and representatives of the Dalai Lama since it has led to contacts between the two sides. Further, he noted that such visits have enabled more and more people from the Dalai Lama's group to know the 'reality of China and Tibet'.

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he wants 'genuine autonomy', not independence, for his Himalayan homeland. But Beijing has expressed suspicion about his motives and anti-China campaigns.

Sporadic secret talks between the Dalai Lama's envoys and China resumed in 2002, but have made scant progress. The latest round of talks between the two sides were in China when the Dalai Lama's special envoy, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, led a four-man delegation to the country in mid-February this year.