Nepal closes Dalai Lama's office in Kathmandu

Nepal has ordered the closure of the contact office of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and of the Tibetan refugee welfare centre in Kathmandu, an official said.

"The Office of Dalai Lama's Representative in Nepal and Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office were ordered closed since they were functioning without being registered with the government," Baman Parasad Neupane, chief district official in the capital, said on Saturday.

Wangchuk Tsering, the Dalai Lama's representative to Nepal, confirmed the orders.

Nepalese newspapers said the office and the centre, which mainly look after the interests of 30,000 Tibetan refugees in Nepal, were ordered closed to appease the Chinese government.

China, Nepal's neighbour to the north, has long expressed its displeasure about the two Kathmandu-based institutions.

The institutions have faced charges of encouraging Tibetans to flee into Nepal as well as "abetting" a "Free Tibet" movement aimed at fighting a freedom struggle with China.

The Tibetan spiritual leader fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against the Chinese in Tibet.

He also runs a Tibetan government-in-exile at Dharamasala in northern India.