BEIJING — China's government is planning a fresh round of talks with Dalai Lama envoys, state media said days after he expressed dismay over the prospects of progress for greater autonomy in Tibet.

The meeting between the two sides will take place "in the near future," Xinhua News Agency said without giving a specific date.

Discussions had originally been scheduled for last October but it had been unclear if they would move forward after the remarks by the Dalai Lama, who is often demonized by Beijing.

Thupten Samphel, spokesman for the self-proclaimed Tibetan government-in-exile in northern India's Dharmsala, said he had no comment.

Quoting an unnamed official, Xinhua said discussions will take place despite anti-government riots this spring in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and "some serious disruptions and sabotages to the Beijing Olympic Games by a handful of 'Tibet independence' secessionists."

The Dalai Lama and his government should "treasure this opportunity and make a positive response to the requirements set forth by the central authorities," the official said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had no details on the talks and telephones rang unanswered at the United Front Work Department, the central government department in charge of previous meetings.

Earlier in the week, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu urged the Dalai Lama to "better understand the situation, demonstrate sincerity and do something good for the Tibetan people in his lifetime."

The announcement came after Tibetan officials in India said the Dalai Lama had called a special meeting of Tibetan exile communities and political organizations to discuss the future amid foundering talks with China.

The five-day gathering, scheduled for mid-November, could mark a significant shift in the Tibetan strategy for confronting Beijing, which has governed the Himalayan region since communist troops occupied it in the 1950s.

The Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid a failed uprising in 1959, has followed a "middle way" approach with China, which means he wants some autonomy that would allow Tibetans to freely practice their culture, language and religion.

But over the weekend, he said at a public function in Dharmsala that he had "been sincerely pursuing the middle way approach in dealing with China for a long time now but there hasn't been any positive response from the Chinese side.

"As far as I'm concerned, I have given up," he said in an unusually blunt statement.

Relations have been particularly tense this year. In March, peaceful demonstrations against Chinese rule in Lhasa exploded into violence. Beijing says 22 people were killed in the riots, in which hundreds of shops were torched and Chinese civilians attacked.

China then launched a massive crackdown in Tibet and a broad swath of Tibetan areas in the country's west regions. Tibetan exile groups said at least 140 people died.

The last round of dialogue — the seventh since 2002 — ended in an impasse in July, with China demanding that the Dalai Lama prove he does not support Tibetan independence and disruption of the Olympics in August.