Special report: Tibet: Its Past and Present

    BELGRADE, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) supports China's efforts to promote stability as well as further economic and social development in Tibet, said an EU presidency statement released on Saturday.

    It is in the interest of both the EU and China if both sides try to find some common grounds on the Tibet issue, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency at present, was quoted as saying.

    Rupel made the remarks during talks with Guan Chengyuan, the Chinese premier's special envoy, in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana on Friday, the statement said.

    Rupel said the EU would not invite the Dalai Lama to a formal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, as French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has proposed.

    But contacts between the EU and the Dalai Lama were possible "on other levels," he said.

    According to the statement, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has sent a letter to Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, who is presiding over the EU Council, in which Wen expressed the views of the Chinese government on Tibet and events related to Tibet that had occurred in some EU member states.

    On the Beijing Olympics, Rupel said Slovenia opposes a boycott of the Games, since the Olympic Games is the greatest sports event in the world and it would be wrong to link it to politics, the statement said.