US president Barack Obama has met Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the White House announced.

"The president is currently meeting w/His Holiness the @DalaiLama in his capacity as an internationally respected religious & cultural leader," the National Security Council said on Twitter.

Mr Obama last met the Dalai Lama at the White House in 2011, triggering an angry response from Beijing, which said the meeting would harm Sino-US relations.

Mr Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama sent a "powerful message" with the two leaders discussing human rights, Tibet's prime minister-in-exile said after the talks.

"It sends a very powerful message to Tibetans inside Tibet because it gives them a sense of hope that their voices are heard, even by the most powerful person in the world," prime minister-in-exile Lobsang Sangay said.

"The respect shown to His Holiness by President Obama means a lot to Tibetans all over the world, particularly inside Tibet," he said.

Mr Sangay, who was elected to the new position in 2011 after the Dalai Lama said he was retiring from his political role, said that Mr Obama asked the spiritual leader about the human rights plight of Tibetans living under Chinese rule.

Mr Sangay said that the Dalai Lama told Mr Obama he was committed to the "Middle Way" of peacefully seeking greater autonomy within China.

The meeting took place in the Map Room of the president's residence and not the Oval Office, which the president usually uses to meet foreign leaders and visiting dignitaries.

China denounced Mr Obama for meeting the Dalai Lama, accusing the Nobel Peace Prize winner - who has lived in exile in India since 1959 - of pursuing a separatist agenda.

The Chinese government warned that the meeting would "seriously damage" ties between the two countries, with a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman describing it as "a gross interference in China's internal affairs".

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned US charge d'affaires Daniel Kritenbrink to protest the meeting, state media reported.

"China expresses strong indignation and firm opposition," Mr Zhang said, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Mr Zhang said Obama's White House meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader earlier in the day, amounted to interference in China's internal affairs.

"The Tibetan issue is the domestic affair of China and the United States bears no right to interfere," Mr Zhang said.

China considers the Tibetan spiritual leader a political figure in exile who is undertaking anti-China separatist activities.

Behind closed doors

In a sign of the sensitivity of the meeting, it was listed on the president's daily schedule as closed to the press.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden had underlined before the meeting that the US supported the Dalai Lama's approach but recognised Tibet to be "a part of the People's Republic of China".

"We do not support Tibetan independence," she said.

"The United States strongly supports human rights and religious freedom in China. We are concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China."

The Obama administration, she said, would renew calls for the Chinese government to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives, without preconditions.

China has for decades opposed foreign dignitaries meeting the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The revered Buddhist leader says he advocates greater autonomy for Tibetans rather than independence.

But tensions between Tibetans and the Chinese authorities run high.

More than 120 Tibetans have set themselves on fire and committed suicide in recent years to protest what they see as oppression by China's government and controls on their right to exercise their religion.

ABC/AFP