The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was awarded a human rights prize by senior US congressional leaders on Tuesday. However, President Barack Obama will not be meeting the Dalai Lama, a move that has sparked accusations of "kowtowing to China".

It is the first time since 1991 that the Dalai Lama has visited Washington and not had a meeting with the occupant of the Oval Office. The prize, named in honour of the late Tom Lantos, a former chairman of the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, was presented by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said "unless we speak out on human rights in China and Tibet, we lose moral authority to speak out on human rights anywhere else in the world".
 

The senior Republican on the foreign affairs committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen accused of President Obama of "kowtowing to Beijing" by refusing to meet with Dalai Lama. A White House statement said the decision not to meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader until after President Obama's meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, had been taken with the agreement of the Dalai Lama.
 

China invaded Tibet in 1950; after an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese occupation, the Dalai Lama fled to India and set up a government-in-exile. Relations between Beijing and the government-in-exile have always been tense but they worsened in 2008 after protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa marking the anniversary of the Chinese invasion turned into riots. Chinese security forces cracked down on harshly on the protesters and thousands were arrested.
 

Beijing says 18 people were killed but Tibetan human rights groups say more than 200 people died. The Dalai Lama has called China's policy of introducing huge numbers of ethnic Han Chinese into Tibet and the suppression of Tibetan culture, language and religion a "cultural genocide".