PLOURAY, (France) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will meet the Dalai Lama next week, according to a close aide of the Tibetan spiritual leader, at the risk of drawing an angry reaction from China.

The Dalai Lama's aide Mathieu Ricard told journalists the meeting - which was not officially confirmed by the French government - would take place on August 20, next Wednesday, in the western French city of Nantes.

'Bernard Kouchner has expressed his wish to meet him. He telephoned us yesterday evening. There will be a meeting', said Mr Ricard.

Up until now, no meetings with French government ministers have been planned during the exiled Tibetan leader's 12-day visit, which began on Monday.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of snubbing the Dalai Lama to avoid provoking China during the Olympic Games, although the entourage of the Buddhist leader said he had not sought to see the president.

A French minister said Mr Sarkozy would host the Tibetan spiritual guide at a ceremony for Nobel peace laureates in Paris in December.

During a visit to a Buddhist center in the north-west French city of Plouray on Thursday, the Dalai Lama raised the alarm on Tibet.

He told a crowd of several thousand of his followers, some waving Tibetan flags, that the events now taking place in Tibet fundamentally threatened the culture, heritage and the Tibetan nation.

Earlier, the Tibetan leader delivered a speech on peace at another Buddhist centre in Normandy, north-west France, and met with religious and political authorities in the nearby Morbihan district of nearby Brittany.

Mr Sarkozy is sending his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy to see the Dalai Lama inaugurate a temple in southern France on August 22, the day before the Buddhist leader wraps up his visit.

Ms Rama Yade, a junior minister in Kouchner's cabinet and outspoken critic of China's policies in Tibet following its crackdown on unrest there in March, said on Thursday she would be 'very happy to meet' the Nobel laureate.

She said her office was trying to 'find the best moment' for a meeting.

Mr Ricard said he was not aware of any meeting between Ms Yade and the Tibetan spiritual leader for the time being.

France is struggling to mend ties with China frayed by Mr Sarkozy's initial threat to boycott the opening of the Beijing Games, together with pro-Tibet protests during the passage of the Olympic flame through Paris.

China had warned Mr Sarkozy that a meeting with the Dalai Lama would have 'consequences' for bilateral ties.

Beijing on Thursday repeated its call for France to carefully handle the 'sensitive' issue of Tibet.

'China's position on the Tibetan issue is consistent and clear', the foreign ministry said in a statement.

'We hope France will pay attention to China's concerns (and) carefully handle the related important and sensitive issue', it said.

'(France should) make efforts with China to avoid any disturbances that could arise and ensure the healthy and stable development of Sino-French relations'.

During private talks with French lawmakers on Wednesday - so far the main political encounter of his visit - the Dalai Lama was quoted as accusing China of pursuing a crackdown in Tibet in spite of the Olympic Games.

He described 'arbitrary arrests, summary executions and torture to the death' and a 'very strong reinforcement of the military and police presence across historic Tibet', according to a statement issued later by the Senate.

The Dalai Lama also claimed that China was planning to send a million mainland Chinese nationals to settle in Tibet after the end of the Beijing Olympics, the statement added. -- AFP