Obama to host Dalai Lama at White House

US president Barack Obama (L), pictured in the Oval Office of the White house in Washington on February 9, 2010, and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, before a lecture in Tokyo on Novemeber 1, 2009. Photo: AFP

Washington, U.S.A: US President Barack Obama will host Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House on Friday, a move China said would "seriously impair" ties as it called for the meeting to be canceled.

The meeting will take place in the Map Room on the ground floor of the president's residence and not the Oval Office, which Obama usually uses to meet foreign leaders and visiting dignitaries.