US, China end "frank" talks on N. Korea, Iran, Darfur / US, China to sustain talks on Africa, world regions

Two wire-service stories:

From AFP...

Senior US and Chinese diplomats ended two days of talks [on] Thursday that included the North Korean and Iranian nuclear issues, the Darfur crisis, energy security, and climate change.

The twice-yearly dialogue, led by US [Deputy Secretary of State] John Negroponte and China's executive vice foreign minister, Dai Bingguoo, also touched on human rights and the Taiwan question, according to a statement from the State Department.

"The constructive and frank talks focused on building mutual trust between the United States and China," it said, adding that the two leaders "covered a wide range of key bilateral, regional and global issues."

Dai is scheduled to hold talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday.

The State Department said the talks "included the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, curbing Iran's pursuit of nuclear-weapons capability, the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, and peace and security in Northeast Asia."

They also discussed "combating the spread of weapons of mass destruction" and "the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."

Details of the discussions were not provided.

The meeting was held amid stepped-up diplomacy, led by China's chairing of multilateral talks, to end North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.

US negotiator Christopher Hill made a surprise visit to North Korea [on] Thursday to underline the need for North Korea to fulfill its part of a February deal clinched at six-party talks to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

The United States is also stepping up international efforts to isolate Iran over its defiant nuclear program, but it is quietly concerned over China's potential oil and gas dealings with the Islamic republic, experts say.

Beijing has signed a 100-billion-dollar agreement to import 10 million tonnes of Iranian natural gas over the coming decades. In return, Chinese companies will become key stakeholders in Iran's oil fields.

On the human-rights front, US President George W. Bush at a recent conference in Prague attacked China for rights abuses, and said [that] Beijing's political reforms were lagging behind its economic progress.

The United States also has been looking forward to Beijing's support to end the devastating crisis in China ally Sudan's western region of Darfur.

China said this week that it had used "very direct language" to persuade the Sudanese government to accept a beefed-up peacekeeping force to Darfur.

Rice will attend a Paris meeting Monday on Darfur that would include Chinese leaders aimed at getting a full international African Union-UN force into Sudan as "quickly as possible," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Taiwan has been a longstanding thorn in relations between China and the United States, but this week, the island's independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian raised fresh concerns with a referendum plan.

Taiwanese officials said [that] Taipei planned to go ahead with a referendum next year on joining the United Nations under its own name, despite objections from the United States and China, which regards the island as a renegade province.

The United States is the leading arms supplier to Taiwan, despite its switch of diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. Washington by law has to help defend Taiwan, if attacked by China.

From Reuters...

The United States and China pledged on Thursday to continue talks on Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the U.S. State Department said, following two days of talks by senior officials in Washington.

The U.S.-China Senior Dialogue, led by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, agreed to lower-level talks "to enhance mutual understanding and better coordinate our efforts" to promote security and development in key regions, the department said in a statement.

The talks that ended Thursday, the fourth round since 2005, covered the North Korean nuclear issue, Iran's nuclear ambitions, Sudan's violent Darfur region, as well as human rights, climate change, energy security, and fighting the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the statement said.

The small delegations led by Negroponte and Dai that met in Washington and nearby Maryland also discussed security in Northeast Asia, including matters of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the department said.

China made no immediate comment on the closed-door talks, which were started in an effort to manage relations across a range of issues and regions where the interests of the U.S. superpower and rising China sometimes converge and often clash.

Negroponte and Dai reviewed and decided to continue separate "sub-dialogues" between the two countries on Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and Northeast and Southeast Asia launched this year would continue to be held, the statement said.

The next senior talks would be held in China at the end of this year, it added.