10:24 a.m. CDT, May 13, 2012

LONDON (Reuters) - Tibet's Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, fears China may have plotted to kill him by training female agents with poison in their hair and on their clothing, he told Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

China has ruled Tibet since 1950, and the Chinese government has repeatedly accused exiled Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, of stoking dissent against its rule. The spiritual leader fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising.

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Last year he was warned that Chinese agents had trained Tibetan women to kill him, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Asked about the assassination plot, the Dalai Lama said:

"Oh yes. In the hair poisoned and scarf poisoned. So they say they're sick, supposed to seek blessing from me. And my hand touch. That kind of information we received."

"I don't know whether 100 percent correct or not. There is no possibility to cross-check," he added, speaking in broken English in a video posted on the Telegraph's website.

The Dalai Lama's comments follow a spate of self-immolations and protests against Chinese control in the country's Tibetan-populated areas, prompting the rulingCommunist Party to tighten security.

The 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner was expected to visit London's St Paul's Cathedral on Monday to receive the $1.7 million Templeton Prize for his work affirming the spiritual dimension of life.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Mark Heinrich)