Hu Jintao

DHARMSALA, India - Years of negotiations with Beijing have achieved little for the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama said Friday, though he insisted that talks still needed to press ahead and that the Chinese leadership could - eventually - soften its stand on Tibet.

BEIJING - Envoys of exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama arrived in Beijing Friday for weekend talks amid subtle shifts in China's approach to its restive, riot-scarred western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.