Merkel, who angered China by receiving the Dalai Lama in her office last September, said she could not meet with him during his visit to Germany next month because she will be in Latin America.

In the interview, to appear Sunday in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, she said, “I will however definitely meet the Dalai Lama again at a later point in time.”

In extracts released in advance, the chancellor added, “My reception of the Dalai Lama and China’s behavior toward him are two separate issues.

“But they both involve how we deal with the observance or breach of human rights, and Germany’s stance on this is clear. Receiving the Dalai Lama is part of that.”

Merkel, however, ruled out a boycott of this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, saying she favors dialogue with the Chinese government over its human-rights record and talks with the Dalai Lama on Tibet, and added that boycotts achieved nothing.

“The Olympic Games offer China the chance to present itself better to the world as well as giving the world an opportunity to know the country better,” Merkel said. “The boycott of the Olympic Games in 1980 in the end did nothing except lead to a counter-boycott in 1984.”

Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of directing violent protests against its rule in Tibet and refused to meet with him.

The news magazine Der Spiegel said Saturday tension was growing over plans for the Dalai Lama to meet next month in the western city of Bochum with the speaker of the lower house of the German parliament, Norbert Lammert, a Christian Democrat like Merkel.

Spiegel said the Chinese ambassador to Berlin had spoken to Lammert for one hour, pressing him to cancel the meeting, and this was leading to a hardening of German-Chinese relations.

Lammert, who is formally the number two to the German head of state, President Horst Koehler, had written a letter of protest back to ambassador Ma Canrong, voicing concern at “not only the current situation in Tibet but also in other parts of China.”

German Science Minister Annette Schavan joined the criticism of China, telling the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag, “China ought to know you cannot hold a great empire together by oppression.” She said she would raise human rights breaches during a coming visit to China.

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