Capping a controversial visit to France during the Beijing Olympics, the Dalai Lama met with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy for the inauguration of a Buddhist temple in a southern French town Friday. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy, however, was not present, sparking criticism from the opposition Socialist party.

Accompanied by a barefoot Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the Dalai Lama prostrated himself before the statue of Buddha inside the temple, before saluting Kouchner in the audience. Earlier, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader led a procession around the temple under the driving rain.

The Tibetan spiritual leader’s 12-day visit to France has sparked furor in Beijing, with China warning Sarkozy that any personal meeting the Dalai Lama would have "serious consequences" for bilateral relations between France and China. On Wednesday, Beijing warned France to prudently deal with the "important and sensitive" issue of Tibet.

During private talks after the temple inauguration, Bruni-Sarkozy conveyed the French president’s “salutations,” according to the Dalai Lama’s spokesperson, Jampal Chosang.

Following their meeting, Kouchner declared that the Tibetan leader was “always welcome in France.”

In the wake of worsening relations between Paris and Beijing, Kouchner had earlier come close to cancelling the meeting with the Dalai Lama. On Sunday, Kouchner announced that the crisis in Georgia had upset his agenda and had insisted that the 73-year-old Nobel Peace prize’s visit was a “private affair" with “no pomp and ceremony.”

The Dalai Lama also met with French Human Rights Minister Rama Yade, who has been accused of having a confused stance on Tibet. In April, Yade had declared that Sarkozy would attend the Beijing Olympics on three conditions, including a halt to violence against civilians and the launch of talks with the Tibetan spiritual leader. The French government – and Yade - later denied these conditions had been set

On August 8, Sarkozy attended the opening of the Beijing Olympics despite the decision of European counterparts such as British PM Gordon Brown and German chancellor Angela Merkel not to attend the ceremony.

The French opposition Socialist Party has slammed what they see as the “permanent incoherence” of the government’s stance on Tibet.

The Tibetan spiritual leader has already been met with muted enthusiasm by the French government during his visit. Denied an official welcome at the Senate, the Dalai Lama was received in an ordinary office at the Senate on August 13. In an interview with Le Figaro, the right-wing MP Lionnel Luca, president of the French parliamentary commission on Tibet, slammed the welcome as “shameful.”

In an interview with the French daily Le Monde, the Dalai Lama declared that he had not come to Paris with “a political agenda” and had come to work on the “promotion of human values and dialogue between religions.” However, he hoped that after the Olympic Games, Sarkozy, as head of the rotating presidency of the European Union, will make some “constructive proposals to the Chinese government.”

To and fro between compromise and criticism

Pro-Tibet protests in France and criticism of China’s human rights track record in recent months have angered Beijing and provoked a flurry of French diplomatic moves to appease an important trading partner.

In March 2008, the media was a-buzz with Sarkozy’s hints of a boycott of the Beijing Olympics to punish China for its policy in Tibet. While western leaders had stopped short of threatening to boycott the Games, Sarkozy said “all options” were open and that he would make a decision to go to Beijing depending on China’s human rights track record.

Anti-French demonstrations broke out in China in April when pro-Tibetan demonstrations disrupted the Olympic torch relay in Paris. Passing through Paris under armed guard, the torch was extinguished several times.

The unruly scenes on the streets of Paris during the relay, the Dalai-Lama’s August visit and Sarkozy’s ambiguous statements have all contributed to strained bilateral relations. In China, several thousand protesters targeted French retail giant Carrefour last April, demonstrating outside outlets across the country. According to the AFP, official Chinese media had called on readers to show “reasonable patriotism.”

French diplomats later sought to calm the anti-French sentiment in China, an important trading partner. The president of the French Senate, Christian Poncelet, visited Shanghai to appease the situation. Sarkozy also wrote a letter to the wheelchair-bound Chinese fencer who had carried the Olympic torch through embattled Paris. Jin Jing had to fend off attempts to grab the flame during the relay.

At a time of voter discontent over a slowing economy and declining spending power in France, China is an important trading partner. According to 2007 French Chamber of Commerce report, France is the second most important European supplier to China after Germany. In 2006, the turn-over of French companies established in China increased by 25% and reached a total of 20 billion euros.