As current holder of the European Union's six-month rotating presidency, the French leader's decision to engage with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has so far seen Beijing retaliate by scrapping a China-EU summit in France earlier this week.

It also warned multi-billion-dollar trade deals between China and France are at stake should the meeting go ahead.

Asked Friday in Gdansk whether he thought the French president might cancel the meeting with him as has happened twice in the past, the Dalai Lama said: 'Wait until tomorrow. I don't know.'

Commenting on whether EU-China relations and trade could substantially suffer over his planned meeting with Mr Sarkozy the Dalai Lama remarked: 'China also needs Europe.'

'The original initiative of some pressure, sometimes is not followed by action,' he said.

France is digging in its heels, saying the meeting will go ahead and calling for economic ties to be spared from retribution, especially during the financial crisis.

'We cannot have France's conduct dictated to, even by our friends,' said Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk is also expected to meet with the Dalai Lama on Saturday in Gdansk, the Polish government press services said on Friday.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader has been invited, alongside other past recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, to ceremonies in Gdansk marking 25 years since Poland's anti-communist Solidarity icon Lech Walesa was awarded the honour.

The former union leader is regarded as a key figure in the peaceful collapse of communism in Poland in 1989.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is also expected to attend the Saturday ceremonies in Gdansk.

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has sought 'meaningful autonomy' for Tibet since he fled his homeland following a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, nine years after Chinese troops invaded the region.

China argues he actually seeks full independence, something he on Friday called a 'totally baseless' claim.

'When China becomes more democratic, with freedom of speech, with rule of law and particularly with freedom of the press, ... once China becomes an open, modern society, then the Tibet issue, I think within a few days, can be solved,' the Dalai Lama said on Friday in Gdansk.

Addressing the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday, he said China lacked the moral authority to be a true superpower. -- AFP