BEIJING, June 19(AP) -- Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking was in China's capital Monday to speak at an international gathering of scientists on the origins of the universe.

Hawking was in Beijing to attend the "Strings 2006" conference on the riddle of string theory which, if solved, could help unlock the mysteries of black holes and the creation of the universe.

He was to speak at the Great Hall of the People for the event, hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Theoretical Physics, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The British author of the best-selling "A Brief History of Time" was also to give a lecture Wednesday.

The wheelchair-bound Hawking suffers from the neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and is nearly completely paralyzed.

He and other scientists have been trying to prove string theory, which aims to reconcile Einstein's theory of relativity describing the large-scale structure of the universe, and quantum mechanics dealing with nature at the subatomic level.

At an hourlong lecture last week at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hawking said the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God.