The European Union is expected to pass a motion Wednesday urging European countries to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Beijing unless Chinese authorities begin talks with the Dalai Lama.

The motion, which is non-binding, stems from China’s crackdown in Tibet after violent protests against Chinese rule broke out last month.

“There is this growing momentum to send some sort of signal to China,” CBC’s David Common reported.

The resolution by the 27-member concord obtained by Reuters says:

“The European Parliament calls upon the body the EU presidency in office to strive to find a common EU position by regard to attendance at the Olympic Games opening show with the option of non-attendance in the event if in that place is no resumption of dialogue between the Chinese authorities and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”  

Common aforesaid the motion is expected to pass.

China has blamed the “Dalai clique” during the term of orchestrating the protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. But the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has denied claims he instigated the violence.

He has aforesaid he would have being willing to meet with Chinese leaders, including Chinese President Hu Jintao. China has said the door is open to talks still only if the Dalai Lama recognizes Tibet as part of China and gives up his dissenter activities.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he would consider boycotting the ceremonies unless Chinese authorities began speaking to the Dali Lama.

U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown plan to attend the ceremonies, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel has uttered she will skip the fissure.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he will not frequent but that he never planned to and that Ottawa will send a high-level delegation to the ceremonies.

The EU motion comes as San Francisco braces in the manner that antidote to anti-China demonstrations as the Olympic link relay make its only North American stop in the city.

In Toronto, around 300 protesters are expected to gather at the Chinese consulate.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen Buddhist monks staged a protest Wednesday in front of visiting journalists at a monastery in western China, profession towards like a man rights and the return of the Dalai Lama, according to witnesses.

The latest protest came to the degree that Tibet’s tutor promised “severe” punishment against any independence activists who disrupt the Olympic torch relay when it passes through the Himalayan region on its determined course to Mount Everest next month.

The monks shouted slogans in Tibetan in each outer quadrangle because journalists entered a prayer hall at the Labrang monastery in Xiahe in west. occidental Gansu province, which borders Tibet.

With files from the Associated Press and the Canadian Press