China said yesterday it made no concessions on Tibetan sovereignty during talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama over the future of the region — the first such negotiations in more than ayear.

"(China’s) national interests are inviolable and there is no room for discussion on the issues of national and territorial sovereignty," said a government statement on the talks, quoted by the official Xinhua news agency.

The statement marked China's first confirmation that the secretive talks had concluded, and came as the Tibetan spiritual leader's envoys returned Monday to their exile base in India.

The negotiations between the two sides, which have held an intermittent but inconclusive dialogue over the years on the Dalai Lama's call for "meaningful autonomy" for the Buddhist Himalayan region, were the first in 14 months.

But the statement from the United Front Work Department - a Communist Party organ that handles contact with the Dalai Lama - indicated no major breakthroughs were achieved.

It said the idea of a "high degree of auton-

omy (for Tibet) violates China's constitution."

The Tibetan envoys flew to China a week ago and held meetings with Chinese officials first in the central province of Hunan before moving to Beijing at the weekend, the Dalai Lama's senior secretary Chhime Chhoekyapa told APR

Chhoekyapa declined to provide any details ofthe talks.

The envoys, Lodi G Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, were to travel to the Dalai Lama's base in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala later Monday to brief the prime minister ofthe exiled Tibetan government, Chhoekyapa said.

The actual Chinese statement could not immediately be seen and there was no other official comment from China's government, although it announced it wouldholdapressbriefingon Tuesday on the issue.

At the last round of talks in November 2008, the Tibetans handed over a memorandum insisting their demands for autonomy in the mountainous Buddhist enclave wereinlinewithChina'sconstitution.

Beijing said at the time it would not compromise on its position that Tibet is an integral part of China, but said it would keep

open the door for future discussions despite "serious divergences" between the two sides.

Gyari and Gyaltsen had flown to China on January 25 for what was the ninth round of meetings since the secretive dialogue process began in2002.

The Dalai Lama, 75, who has complained Tibetan culture is in danger of being extinguished, has sought some degree of autonomy for the region since he fled his homeland after a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule.

That came nine years after Chinese troops invaded the region.

China says the Dalai Lama actually wants full independence and has insisted that he must renounce "separatist” activities - which he denies supporting.

The resumption of talks had been warmly welcomed by Washington, which said it hoped for "positive results" in addressing longstanding differences over thefiitureofTibet.

The Dalai Lama will be in Washington at the start of a 10-day US visit on February 16. Chhoekyapa said he could not confirm whether the exiled spiritual leader would have a meeting with US President Barack Obama.