China "deserves to be a superpower" given its huge population and military strength but it lacks the moral authority to speak on behalf of Tibet, the Dalai Lama has said.

Speaking in Belgium after an address to the European parliament, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said China's poor human rights record has given it a "very, very poor" moral image.

"Because of its very poor record on human rights and religious freedom and freedom of expression and freedom of the press – too much censorship – the image of China in the field of moral authority is very, very poor," he told reporters in Brussels.

"The sensible Chinese realise China should now pay more attention in this field in order to get more respect from the rest of the world."

The Nobel peace laureate said he doubted the Chinese government's seriousness in discussing the future of Tibet.

"We are not 'splittists', but the Chinese government still accuses us of being 'splittists'," he said.

Hans-Gert Poettering, the parliament's president, called on Chinese leaders to hold meaningful talks with representatives of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

He gave his assurance that the European parliament would "continue to defend the rights of the Tibetan people to their cultural and religious identity".

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has sought "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet since he fled the region following a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, nine years after Chinese troops invaded the region.

On Saturday the exiled Tibetan leader will be in Poland to meet Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Beijing, angered by the scheduled meeting, took an unprecedented decision to call off an EU summit that was supposed to have been held in France this week.

China objects to foreign leaders meeting with the Dalai Lama whom it says is trying to push for independence for his Himalayan homeland that has been under Chinese rule since 1951.