DHARAMSHALA, July 13: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has reportedly urged Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to engage in dialogue with exile Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Clinton and Yang met Thursday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for an annual forum of regional foreign ministers on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.

Bloomberg quoted a US official who “wasn’t authorised to speak on the record” as confirming Secretary Clinton’s statement on Tibet.

“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama, according to a U.S. official who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record,” Bloomberg said Thursday.

In a major development last month, two envoys of the Dalai Lama responsible for holding talks with Beijing resigned.

The two envoys, who have led nine rounds of talks with the People’s Republic of China since 2002, cited the deteriorating situation inside Tibet and their “utter frustration” over the lack of positive response from China as reasons for their decision.

In November last, Secretary Clinton had expressed her “deep concern” over China's repressive policies in Tibet at the 19th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Clinton said US was "alarmed by recent incidents in Tibet of young people lighting themselves on fire in desperate acts of protest, as well as the continued house arrest of the visually impaired Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng."

The US Senate in March this year unanimously approved a resolution condemning China’s “repressive policies targeting Tibetans” and calling on Beijing to resume dialogue with representatives of the Dalai Lama.

In the resolution, the Senate urged China to free all people who have been “arbitrarily detained; to cease the intimidation, harassment and detention of peaceful protesters; and to allow unrestricted access to journalists, foreign diplomats and international organisations to Tibet.”

The resolution also reiterated earlier calls to bar China from opening further consulates in the United States until Beijing lets Washington start a mission in Tibet’s capital Lhasa.

Earlier this month, China blocked access to Bloomberg's website in the mainland after the financial news agency carried a report revealing multimillion-dollar assets and business dealings of relatives of Chinese vice president Xi Jinping, the man set to become the country's next president.