Taipei  - The Dalai Lama has canceled a planned international news conference during his upcoming visit to Taiwan, in an apparent move to avoid politics and embarrassing the Taiwan government, it was announced Sunday.

"His Holiness decided to cancel tomorrow morning's news conference so that he can spend more time visiting typhoon victims," Tsegyam Ngaba, secretary general to the Dalai Lama's Office, told reporters.

"The Dalai Lama said the purpose of his trip is to visit typhoon victims. The news conference is not important and he doesn't have much to say to reporters anyway," he added.

Reporters from some 130 local and foreign news organizations have signed up to cover the Dalai Lama's news conference, scheduled to be held at a hotel in Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan.

The cancellation came a few hours after Parliament Speaker Wang Jin-pyng suggested to Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu, who invited the Dalai Lama, to cancel the news conference to avoid politicizing his visit.

Wang said that reporters were bound to ask sensitive questions at the press conference. "Since this is defined as a religious visit, we should keep it that way and prevent things from getting out of control," he told reporters.

Seven southern Taiwan counties and cities, the hardest-hit when Typhoon Morakot slammed southern Taiwan killing nearly 700 people, invited the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan to bless typhoon survivors.

He will arrive at the Taipei international airport Sunday evening and immediately ride the high-speed train to Kaohsiung.

During his four-day trip, the Dalai Lama will hold two prayer meetings for typhoon victims - one in Kaohsiung and one in Panchiao, in northern Taiwan - before returning to India Friday morning.

President Ma Ying-jeou will not meet the Dalai Lama, the president's office said.

The Dalai Lama's visit comes at a sensitive moment as President Ma is trying to improve Taipei-Beijing ties.

China protested the Dalai Lama's visit, saying Beijing is absolutely opposed to the Dalai Lama's visiting Taiwan because he is a politician wanting to split the motherland.

The 73-year-old Dalai Lama has been living in exile in Dharamasala, northern India, since an abortive uprising against Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959.

In 1989, the Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize for seeking autonomy for Tibet through peaceful means.

He visited Taiwan in 1997 and 2001 to spread Buddhism and meet his Taiwanese disciples, numbering about 500,000.  dpa