* Cameron in first China trip since Dalai Lama row last year
* Priority is to deepen economic ties
* Campaigners urge him to raise Tibet
By Andrew Osborn
LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Britain has put a diplomatic riftwith China over the Dalai Lama behind it and Prime MinisterDavid Cameron has no plans to meet Tibet's spiritual leaderagain, a senior source in his office said ahead of a visit bythe British leader to Beijing.
Instead, Cameron will use a three-day visit to China nextweek, his first since the Dalai Lama rift, to focus on deepeningtrade ties with the world's second largest economy, taking withhim a delegation of around 100 business people.
"This visit is forward looking. We have turned a page onthat issue," said the source when asked whether Cameron wouldraise the issue of Tibet during his trip. "It's about shiftingUK relations up a gear and looking to the future."
Foreign trips often pose a public relations problem for theBritish leader as he has to balance his policy of helpingBritain win what he calls the global economic "race" withspeaking out about any human rights concerns.
It is a circle he has sometimes found hard to square andcampaigners often accuse him of putting trade before rights.
Cameron, who is likely to visit Beijing, Shanghai andChengdu, had been expected to travel to China last autumn.
But he didn't go after China took offence at him holding ameeting with the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing deems a separatist.
China summoned the British ambassador to protest at thetime, saying the meeting had "seriously interfered with China'sinternal affairs", urging Britain to "correct the error".
Free Tibet, a group that campaigns against what it says arerights abuses in the autonomous Chinese region, released a pollon the eve of Cameron's visit showing that 58 percent of Britonsthought he should raise the issue of Tibet with the Chinese.
"It's clear from this poll that only a handful of Britishpeople believe trade with China is more important than humanrights in Tibet and that they expect Mr Cameron to act like astatesman, not a salesman," Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, the group'sdirector, said in a statement.
Last month, George Osborne, Britain's finance minister,visited China with Boris Johnson, the mayor of London.
Both men declined to discuss the Dalai Lama, focusinginstead on what they said was the huge potential for enhancedeconomic ties.
Osborne announced less stringent rules for Chinese banksoperating in London in a push to make the British capital themain offshore hub for trading in China's currency and bonds.
He also opened the door to Chinese investors taking majoritystakes in future British nuclear plants.
The source said British exports to China had increased by 20percent in the first six months of this year, while inwardinvestment by China was at its highest level in decades.
The timing of Cameron's trip was good, the source said,because it came soon after China's communist leadership set newlong-term policy priorities which included opening up theeconomy further.
Xavier Rolet, the chief executive of the London StockExchange, is expected to travel with Cameron.
The business delegation is also expected to include AndrewWitty, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline. Thecompany was drawn into a bribery case in China earlier this yearwhich resulted in police detaining four Chinese GSK executives.
Peter Humphrey, a British man running a risk advisory group,was also detained and is still being held.