In a speech on the anniversary of a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama said he would seek an amendment allowing him to resign his political office when the exiled Tibetan parliament meets next week.

"As early as the 1960s, I have repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need a leader, elected freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power," he said in Dharamshala, the seat of Tibet's government-in-exile in northern India.

"Now, we have clearly reached the time to put this into effect."

China, which brands the 75-year-old Nobel peace laureate a "splittist" bent on Tibetan independence, responded by accusing him of playing "tricks" to deceive the international community.

While the Dalai Lama will retain the more significant role of Tibet's spiritual leader, the move marks a watershed in the history of the Tibetan movement and its long and largely fruitless struggle against Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama was just 15 when he was appointed "head of state" in 1950 after Chinese troops moved into Tibet. He fled his homeland in 1959 after the unsuccessful uprising.

His temporal duties are largely ceremonial and the Dalai Lama had already pronounced himself "semi-retired" following the first direct election in 2001 of a prime minister as the formal head of the exiled government.

The Dalai Lama's remaining political power is now likely to be devolved to the prime minister, boosting the role's profile.

Loyalty to the Dalai Lama has been steadfast over decades of exile, binding together factions within his movement, some of whom favour a more radical agenda than his non-violent campaign for autonomy within the Chinese state.

"We cannot live without him. He is like a guiding light and our mother," said Tsrindiki Joraden, 68, a Tibetan exile in Delhi at a protest to mark the failed uprising.

In his speech, the Dalai Lama acknowledged "repeated and earnest" requests from within Tibet and outside to continue as political leader, but appealed for understanding of his decision.

"My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility," he said. "It is to benefit Tibetans in the long run. It is not because I feel disheartened."

His speech made it clear that he would not be withdrawing from public life and remained "committed to playing my part in the just cause of Tibet".

"It's a symbolic rather than a material change," Barry Sautman, a Tibet expert at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, told AFP. "Any important decisions would still have to be discussed with the Dalai Lama."

"I don't see it affecting relations between the government-in-exile and China and it certainly doesn't presage any change in the Middle Way (autonomy) policy, which would only happen after the Dalai Lama's death."

Despite his advancing age and several health scares, the Dalai Lama maintains a punishing travel schedule as the global face of the Tibetan movement.

But while he commands substantial international respect, official support for his movement has largely been sacrificed to the necessity of maintaining political and trade relations with Beijing.

China has sought to sideline him by castigating any foreign government that champions his cause or allows him to visit.

"The Dalai is a political exile under a religious cloak long engaged in activities aimed at splitting China," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"The government-in-exile is an illegal political organisation and no country in the world recognises it."

While resigning his political office is unlikely to diminish the Dalai Lama's pre-eminent status, it marks an acceleration of preparations to fill the inevitable vacuum that will be left by his death.

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