The Indian government has been asked to treat sympathetically the case of the fourteen-year-old Tibetan religious leader the Karmapa Lama who escaped to India a week ago.

The request came from a member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala, where the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, is based.

India does not recognise the Dalai Lama's headquarters as a government-in-exile.

China has expressed concern about the presence in India of the young leader - recognised by both the Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama as the third most important figure of Tibetan Buddhism.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service