The China-EU summit, due to take place on Monday in France, was called off at the last minute by the Asian giant, which said it was unhappy at French President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to meet the Dalai Lama after the meeting.

"This is an unusually strong way of sending a signal," said Robbie Barnett, professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York.

"The Dalai Lama has been visiting Western capitals since 1987 but there has not been a response to this degree -- the cancellation of a multilateral summit."

China has in the past called off visits or talks with foreign officials -- Germany's finance minister, for example, was forced to cancel a trip to China in December last year after Chancellor Angela Merkel met with the Dalai Lama.

China has insisted for many years that it opposes foreign leaders meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader, who it maintains is trying to win independence for his Himalayan homeland that has been under Chinese rule since 1951.

"But this is unprecedented, it's serious, China has never before cancelled summits," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor of political science at Hong Kong Baptist University.

"China feels much more powerful than before and wants to impose its rules on the rest of the world."

The decision to cancel the summit comes amid an accumulation of irritants between the EU and China, Cabestan said, culminating in a number of actions planned in Europe for December that were bound to anger Beijing.

These included the Dalai Lama's visit to several countries in the EU, his meeting with Sarkozy on December 6, and the European Parliament's formal awarding of the Sakharov Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Hu Jia on the 17th.

Xing Hua, head of the Europe research centre of the Chinese government's China Institute of International Studies, said Beijing's response was borne out of genuine frustration.

"China was forced to do this, as it cannot continue to tolerate heads of state recognising so lightly the head of a secessionist movement," Xing said.

But more than a simple diplomatic signal, some analysts said this could be a deliberate attempt by China to try and split nations within the EU.

"There are internal divisions among the EU powers, and this is a squeeze to try and see who will stick to their principles and who believes they mustn't upset China... it's a high-stakes game," said Barnett.

He cited several recent high profile U-turns in Europe, including the refusal by Germany's foreign minister to meet the Dalai Lama in May after Merkel's talks with the Buddhist spiritual leader caused diplomatic problems.

The Pope also refused to meet him last year, despite having held discussions with him before.

"These are spectacular successes for pressure politics on the Tibet issue," said Barnett.

But others pointed out that it was doubtful China would have flexed its diplomatic muscle in such a big way if it had been meeting with the United States.

"If this was a meeting with the United States, then China wouldn't have done this, so it shows that Europe just comes second," said Li Fan, a researcher at The World and China Institute, an independent think tank in Beijing.

"China thinks the Tibetan issue is more important than its relations with Europe."

Still, the move came at a time when the US presidency was in transition -- a move that Barnett said was significant.

"This is more than a chess play, this is diplomatic hard ball."

earlier related report
The Dalai Lama - stumbling block between China and the West
The Dalai Lama, at the centre of the latest row between China and the European Union, is the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists, a role which makes him both a darling of the West and a political irritant for Beijing's leaders.

Considered a god-king by his followers, he has been a mainstay on the diplomatic stage ever since he fled his native land for neighbouring India in 1959.

Aged 73, and still based in northern India, the Dalai Lama has increasingly been in the spotlight since protests in Tibet turned violent in March this year.

The unrest occurred just months before the Chinese capital Beijing hosted the Summer Olympic Games. The sporting extravaganza provided a focus both for protests against China's human rights record and for groups which seek either independence or greater autonomy for Tibet.

The Dalai Lama has denied claims by China, which invaded the region in 1950, that he orchestrated unrest in March in an attempt to sabotage the Olympics, which in the event passed off peacefully.

Regarded by his many supporters outside China as a visionary in the vein of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his accent on non-violence to achieve change.

However, he is reviled by the Chinese government, which has branded him a "monster" and accused him of trying to split the nation.

As a young man the Dalai Lama fled his Himalayan homeland after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

Since then he has been a powerful rallying point for Tibetans, both in exile and in their homeland, while frequently touring the world and being a friend to kings, politicians, celebrities and the poor.

Born into a peasant farming family in the Tibetan village of Taksar on July 6, 1935, Lhamo Dhondrub was chosen as the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama at the age of two.

Considered a Buddhist Master exempt from the religion's wheel of death and reincarnation, he was taken to the capital Lhasa's palace to be trained to lead his people.

But as a teenager in 1950 he was called upon to become head of state following the Chinese invasion.

He tried to keep the peace but the effort failed in 1959 when China poured troops into the region to crush the uprising.

The young religious leader, disguised as a soldier, trekked for 13 days through the Himalayas and crossed into India, which offered him Dharamshala as a base and allowed him to set up a government in exile there.

According to officials, at least 100,000 Tibetans live in exile in India which, after fighting a war with China in 1962, barred the Dalai Lama from using its soil as a springboard for a Tibetan independence movement.

The Dalai Lama's original campaign to reclaim Tibet slowly morphed into a plea to Chinese authorities for autonomy for his people.

He insists his moderate "middle path" approach to the impasse is in the Tibetans' best interests. His religious title translates as "Ocean Teacher," a metaphor for the depth of his spirituality.

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