DHARAMSHALA:  India`s foreign secretary Nirupama Rao met exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in this northern Indian hill station for talks on Saturday, officials said.

Rao "called on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the two discussed issues of common interest," Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama, told AFP.

He would not elaborate on the Dalai Lama`s meeting with Rao in Dharamshala, home to the Tibetan government-in-exile since the spiritual leader fled to India more than half a century ago after China crushed an uprising in Tibet.

Rao is the most senior civil servant in the Indian foreign ministry.

Indian government officials declined to comment on Rao`s meeting with the Dalai Lama, who celebrated his 75th birthday earlier in the week,

Her visit to Dharamshala came days after she accompanied India`s National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon on a trip to China, where he met senior Chinese leaders.

China calls the Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk`s clothing" and accuses him of seeking to split the country. The Buddhist leader has repeatedly said he accepts Beijing`s rule and is only seeking "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet.

Indian newspapers had reported the discussions between Rao and the exiled Tibetan leadership could touch on the activities of Tibetan exiles in India. More than 100,000 Tibetan exiles live in 19 settlements across India.

China has in the past accused the Dalai Lama of seeking to stir up tensions between New Delhi and Beijing.

Indo-Chinese relations have become increasingly prickly in recent times over such issues as trade and their disputed Himalayan border -- the trigger for a brief, bloody war in 1962.

BDST:1919 HRS, July 10, 2010