India and China have held their first official discussions concerning the arrival in India last week of the young Buddhist leader, the Karmapa Lama, who had apparently fled from Tibet.

An Indian government spokesman said a foreign ministry official T.C.A. Rangachari met the Chinese ambassor ,Zhou Gang, in Delhi and requested details of the Karmapa Lama's departure.

China warned India earlier this week that granting political asylum to the Tibetan spiritual leader would violate what it called the principle of peaceful co-existence that forms the basis of the Sino-Indian relationship.

India says it has not received any formal asylum request from the Buddhist leader.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service