http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050128/wl_sthasia_afp/nepaltibetchina_050128051131 Fri Jan 28,12:11 AM ET South Asia - AFP KATHMANDU (AFP) - Nepal has closed two offices in Kathmandu associated with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Tibetan and foreign ministry sources said. The government has closed the office of the Dalai Lama's representative and the Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office, a Tibetan source said. "Following an official notification of the home ministry, we have shut down all the offices relating to the Tibetan refugees from this week," a senior welfare office staffer told AFP on Friday. The welfare office looks after more than 20,000 Tibetan refugees who left their homeland after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule. The Chinese embassy has frequently lodged strong protests with the Nepalese government for permitting the Tibetan office to operate in Nepal in the name of the Dalai Lama. Nepal, which is careful not to antagonise its giant neighbour, recognises Beijing's rule over Tibet. A senior foreign ministry official said the Tibetan offices had not registered as required under Nepalese law. The Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office (TRWO) had been helping several hundred destitute Tibetans who fled from Tibet across Himalayan passes to head to the northern Indian hill resort of Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama lives in exile. After crossing into Nepal, the Tibetans are provided with travel documents by the United Nations (news - web sites) refugee agency (UNHCR) to help them to travel to Dharamsala. "The closing of the TRWO may be a big problem for the Tibetan refugees fleeing from the roof of the world for their political freedom," a diplomatic source said.