BEIJING, (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed China to convince North Korea to return to stalled talks on its nuclear weapons programs and urged Beijing to take up a Taiwanese offer for dialogue.
Powell said he was hopeful that Beijing would act to persuade Pyongyang to rejoin the so-called "six-party talks" but allowed he had made little headway on the Taiwan issue, a perennial sorepoint with China.
"I hope as a result of conversations today, both of us will energize the other members of the six-party framework to resolve the outstanding issues that keep us from setting a date for a meeting," he told reporters.
"What we agreed on today was the need for the six-party framework to continue and, for it to continue, it has to meet," Powell said after meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.
Powell, here on the second leg of a three-nation Asian tour dominated by the nuclear impasse, has been trying to forge a joint strategy to get North Korea to return to the table.
After talks in Japan on Sunday, Tokyo agreed to use bilateral meetings with Pyongyang next month to press North Korea harder on rejoining the talks aimed at halting its nuclear arms development.
But his visit comes as Pyongyang is boycotting the talks, has threatened to bolster its military deterrent to counter "hostile" American acts and has intensified already strong anti-US rhetoric.
The United States has praised China's role as host but US officials had said Washington wanted Beijing to push Pyongyang harder on coming back to the table.
China, North Korea's main ally and primary source of energy and food, has hosted three rounds of the talks that also include the United States, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
"Obviously, China is a major provider of assistance to North Korea ... and as a result of that I think China has considerable influence with North Korea," Powell said.
"I am confident that the Chinese are totally committed to the six-party framework," he said, adding that he hoped a date for a new round could be set "in the not-too-distant future."
Many analysts believe North Korea is waiting until after next week's US presidential election, hoping to secure a better deal from the United States if President George W. Bush is defeated by John Kerry.
Powell earlier dismissed suggestions that the election would make a difference in the US approach and reiterated a rejection of North Korean conditions for returning to the talks.
North Korea refused to attend the fourth round scheduled for September, maintaining that the United States was paying only "lip service" to a peaceful resolution of the nuclear deadlock.
On Sunday, it blasted a US-led joint naval exercise set to begin Monday off the Japanese coast as a sign the United States intends "to lay an international siege to (North Korea) through" a maritime blockade.
The drill, which is being held under the auspices of President George W. Bush's Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), is designed to practice techniques for seizing illicit weapons cargos on the high seas.
Although one of the stated goals of PSI is to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction by and to North Korea, Powell denied the manoeuvers were aimed at Pyongyang and said it need only worry if it was involved in illicit shipments.
He also rejected Pyongyang's complaints about a new US human rights law aimed at North Korea, saying the matter was a valid concern and that desperate North Koreans were "speaking out" about abuses by fleeing the country.
As Powell began his meetings in China, a group of North Korean refugees appeared to prove his point by attempting to enter a South Korean consulate building in Beijing.
On Taiwan, Powell said he had unsuccessfully urged Beijing to consider talks with Taipei following the Chinese rejection of a call by Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian for dialogue.
"I encouraged all of my interlocutors today to keep an open mind with respect to dialogue and to take every opportunity that comes along to increase cross-strait dialogue," he said.
However, he acknowledged that members of the Chinese leadership "are still concerned about President Chen Shui-bian's actions and they did not find his statement to be that forthcoming."
Powell also reaffirmed the US "one-China" policy but said the United States would continue to follow the Taiwan Relations Act which governs Washington's relations with the island and calls for the sale of arms for its defense.
China has long demanded that the United States stop selling arms to Taiwan and refrain from sending "wrong signals" to the island, which Beijing regards as a renegade province.

10/25/2004 - 08:07 GMT - AFP