China should stop vilifying the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Tuesday.

"China must stop naming, blaming and verbally abusing one whose life has been devoted to non-violence, His Holiness the Dalai Lama," said the Nobel laureate.

Tutu said he stood in solidarity with the Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet as they defined non-violence, compassion and goodness.

"I urge China to enter into a substantive and meaningful dialoguewith this man of peace.

"Listen to his holiness pleas for restraint, calm and no further violence against this civilian population of monastics and lay people," Tutu said.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 and sought refuge in India. Since early this year, Tibetans in central Asia have staged protests targeting the Olympic games to be held in China later in the year.

They are demanding independence and recognition of Tibet as an independent state.

Tutu said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, should visit Tibet and report to the international community.

"The High Commissioner should be allowed to travel with journalists and other observers who may speak truth to power and level the playing field so that this episode may attain a peaceful resolution.

"This will help not only Tibet, but China," Tutu said. He said China was uniquely positioned to impact and affect the
world, and Chinese leaders knew this.