Dalai Lama, Prime Minister Stephen Harper to hold 'courtesy meeting'

Ottawa - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office has confirmed he will meet privately with the Dalai Lama on Friday.

A spokesman for Harper said the prime minister would hold a "private courtesy meeting" with the Tibetan spiritual leader.

The confirmation followed vague comments from Harper and his office earlier this week as to whether a meeting would take place.

Nima Dorjee, a national member of the Canada Tibet Committee, had said this week he suspected the federal government was under pressure from China to distance itself from the Dalai Lama.

In 2006, the federal Conservative government angered the Communist regime by awarding the exiled spiritual leader honorary Canadian citizenship.

When Harper and the Dalai Lama met in 2007, the Chinese Embassy warned Canada to "stop interfering with China's internal affairs."

Two years later, Harper chose not to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner while he was visiting Canada. Later that year, the prime minister received an invitation to Beijing.

The Dalai Lama will deliver a talk called Ethics for a Whole World on Saturday morning at an Ottawa arena.

He is also expected to meet Friday evening with the Parliamentary Friends of Tibet, an all-party group of parliamentarians.