The Dalai Lama was to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday during a visit to London to receive one of the world's richest prizes, a government spokesman said.
The meetings with Cameron, and with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, were described as "private".
China has in the past strongly objected when the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has met Western leaders.
The Dalai Lama told a press conference earlier that he would donate the £1.1 million ($1.8 million, 1.4 million euros) Templeton Prize to charity.
The prize, which he was to receive in a ceremony at Saint Paul's Cathedral, honours his efforts to encourage "serious scientific investigative reviews of the power of compassion," organisers said.
The Buddhist monk, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, will donate $1.5 million of the prize to Save the Children to help malnourished children in India, where he is exiled.
He will give $200,000 to the Mind and Life Institute, an organisation promoting closer work between science and spirituality, while the rest will fund scientific education for Tibetan monks.
"I am very happy to receive this," Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, told journalists.
Explaining his choice of charity, the 76-year-old said: "Our hope is with future generations.
"Our generation belongs to the 20th century -- we are ready to say bye-bye," he added with his trademark giggle.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Chinese rule for India in 1959, announced last year that he was giving up his political role and would focus on spiritual duties.
He was tight-lipped about an interview he gave to Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper in which he revealed that he was warned by sources within Tibet of a plot by Chinese agents to assassinate him.
He was allegedly to be poisoned by Tibetan women posing as devotees seeking his blessing.
"We have no possibility to cross-check, so I don't know," he said on Monday.
Beijing has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama of encouraging Tibetan protesters against Chinese rule in the vast Himalayan region to set fire to themselves, a charge he denies.
The spiritual leader, who seeks greater Tibetan autonomy, described the self-immolations on Monday as "a sensitive political issue."
"I think my message should be 'zero' as since last year I have retired from political responsibility," he said.