Dharamsala, November 24 - The United States has thanked India for extending hospitality to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a statement that is likely to anger China, which views the revered Tibetan leader as a "separatist".

Thanking India for its hospitality to the 1989 Nobel peace prize winner, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the United States House of Representatives Monday said, “India is a country that is value based.”

Pelosi, who visited the north Indian hilltown of Dharamsala last year following Chinese crackdown on Tibetan protesters, made the remarks as she welcomed the visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Capitol Hill.

She said that from Martin Luther King who received inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi, to the present generation, Americans have learnt “about non-violence and how to get results (by using non violence)" from India. Pelosi also extended her invitation to Singh to revisit the US soon and address the joint session of the US Congress.

The Indian Prime Minister thanked Pelosi saying he was honoured.

His Holiness had expressed hopes that the Indian PM would raise the Tibet issue with US president Obama. “The Indian prime minister is a very honest person and a clean politician. India and Tibet have a very close spiritual relation. I am sure that whatever the prime minister can appeal to Obama, he will do,” His Holiness said in New Delhi on Saturday when asked about his hopes from Indian Prime minister's four-day trip to Washington.