Rabat - The 14th annual summit of Nobel Peace laureates will take place in Rome, Italy.
The Summit was originally scheduled to be held in Cape Town, South Africa in September, but it has been moved to the Italian capital after South African authorities refused to grant the Dalai Lama a visa to enter the country, organizers said.
The event would have been the first summit of Nobel Peace Laureates to take place in Africa. It will now take place in Rome from 12 to 14 December.
The organizers of the gathering said that they had to move to Rome after several Nobel Peace Prize winners boycotted the conference in solidarity with the Dalai Lama who also cancelled his trip.
The summit will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa and late South African leader and international icon Nelson Mandela.
The move to deny the Dalai Lama access to the country is explained as an attempt by South Africa to maintain its close ties with China.
The monk is accused by China of seeking to split Tibet region from the rest of the country. He left Tibet in 1959 and has lived in exile ever since.