President Bush will attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing, the White House announced yesterday.

While there was no question Bush would attend the Olympic Games in August, his plans for the opening ceremonies had not been confirmed.

Some world leaders have said they may boycott the Aug. 8 opening event to protest the most recent Chinese security crackdown in Tibetan areas of China. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said this week he would attend if the latest talks made progress.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said yesterday that Bush will travel to South Korea, Thailand and China in August. The trip is built around the Olympics, which the White House long has said that Bush plans to attend as a celebration of sports.

Also yesterday:

Tibet talks end: China demanded that the Dalai Lama prove he does not support Tibetan independence or disruption of the Beijing Olympics, state media reported yesterday as the latest talks ended with the spiritual leader's representatives.

The demands made by a top Chinese official in two days of meetings indicate there has been no apparent change in Beijing's position toward the Dalai Lama, who is demonized frequently by China's Communist Party leadership.

Beijing has accused the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and his supporters of fomenting anti-government protests that rocked Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas of China in March.

Charges rejected: The accusations have been rebuffed by the self-proclaimed Tibetan government-in-exile, which insisted yesterday the Dalai Lama has been "tireless" in expressing his commitment to nonviolence.

"He has also gone out of his way to publicly announce his support for the Beijing Olympics. He has even said that he would like to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics to show his support," said Thupten Samphal, a spokesman for the exile government based in Dharmsala, India.

Slight shifts: Some Tibet experts had hoped for signs that the talks were more than a Chinese attempt to take international focus off Tibet until after the Olympics. They found only slight shifts in which to take heart.

"Now they are implicitly accusing him of 'supporting' violence instead of directly insisting that he masterminds it," said Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar and professor at Columbia University. "I can't see this going down very well in Tibet or anywhere else."