TAIPEI: Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou today approved a visit next week by the

Dalai Lama to the typhoon-hit island in a move analysts say could damage Taipei’s efforts to improve ties with China.

“We have decided to the Dalai Lama’s visit to pray for the souls of the deceased and seek blessings for the survivors of the typhoon,” Ma told reporters in central Nantou county.

The Dalai Lama, whom Beijing has accused of trying to split Tibet from China and reacts angrily to any country or territory hosting him, said last year that he wanted to visit Taiwan but Ma said then that the timing was not right.

The visit, scheduled

for August 31 to September 4, is likely to be greeted with particular consternation in Beijing because

China regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification — by force,

if necessary.

Ma’s spokesman Wang Yu-chi attempted to play down the political significance of the trip, saying it was “based on humanitarian and religious considerations which should not hurt cross-strait ties.” The Dalai Lama, who made a historic first visit to Taiwan in 1997 and went again in 2001, is expected to see the south of the island after it was battered by a strong typhoon two weeks ago which left 463 people dead.

Ma, then mayor of Taipei, met the Tibetan spiritual leader on his previous visits, although his office declined to comment if they would meet again this time.

Beijing condemned the Dalai Lama’s earlier visits and analysts warned next week’s trip and a possible meeting with Ma could deal a severe blow to war-ming ties since Ma took office last year.