'Chinese president hopeful about talks with Dalai Lama representatives'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
China's President Hu Jintao says he hopes for a "positive outcome" from talks between representatives of the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials beginning Sunday. The meeting will be the first between the two sides since violent anti-government protests erupted in Tibet in March. "I hope that the contacts with the Dalai Lama's side from today will yield a positive outcome," Hu told Japanese reporters in Beijing, the Kyodo News agency reported. The talks were scheduled to last for a day or two in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, said Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharmsala, India. "We are positive that something good will come out of it," Rinpoche told The Associated Press.