The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, has said that China may have plotted to kill him by training female agents with poison in their hair and on their clothing.

He said this in an interview to Britain's Sunday Telegraph, which said he was warned last year that Chinese agents had trained Tibetan women to kill him.

When 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 per cent correct or not. There is no possibility to cross-check," he said in a video posted on the newspaper'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 authorities to tighten security.

The 76-year-old Nobel laureate 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.

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.