BEIJING ( 2008-03-28 09:58:01 ) :
A group of Beijing-based foreign diplomats were scheduled to leave for Tibet's riot-hit capital Lhasa on Friday for a two-day trip organised by the Chinese government, embassy officials said.
Diplomats from a number of countries including the United States, Britain, France, Australia and Italy were to participate in the trip, which came on the heels of another government-arranged tour for foreign journalists.
"I suppose the objective of the Chinese foreign ministry is to basically answer the international calls including from the Australian government to have diplomatic access to Tibet," said Janaline Oh, an Australian embassy official.
She said embassies in Beijing were only informed about the planned trip on Thursday, while an Italian embassy spokeswoman said the representatives were expected back on Saturday night.
One diplomat said that the embassies had been allowed to send one official each, although there was no official comment on the trip from Beijing and it was not clear how many countries were going or had been invited.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack welcomed the move, but said it was not enough.
"We see this as a step in the right direction, but it's not a substitute for the ability of our diplomats, as well as others, to travel not only to Lhasa, but into the surrounding area specifically," he told reporters.
China took a foreign media delegation to Lhasa on Wednesday for a three-day trip following international pressure to allow independent reporting from the Tibetan capital after it was sealed off due to the unrest.
AFP and some other major news organisations were not invited.
Two weeks of deadly demonstrations against China's rule of Tibet have put China under international pressure as it prepares to host the Olympics in August.
China has insisted its response to the protests, the biggest challenge to its rule of Tibet in decades, has been restrained and that it has brought the situation under control.
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