Nobel Laureates urge Zuma for Dalai Lama's visa

Fourteen Nobel Peace Laureates have asked President Jacob Zuma to guarantee the Dalai Lama a visa to South Africa, after the Tibetan spiritual leader was forced to abandon a trip to the country.

The Dalai Lama was to attend a summit of Nobel peace prize winners in Cape Town next month, the first-ever meeting of its kind in Africa.

But, according to an aide, he cancelled after Pretoria denied him a visa for a third time in the last five years in a bid to avoid angering China, which regards the Buddhist monk as a campaigner for Tibetan independence.

"We are deeply concerned about the damage that will be done to South Africa's international image by a refusal -- or failure -- to grant him a visa yet again," the group said in a letter to Zuma.

Signatories include Poland's Lech Walesa, Bangladeshi entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Northern Irish peacemakers David Trimble and John Hume.