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BEIJING - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for vital talks with China's leaders about how to rebuild momentum in the stalled North Korean nuclear disarmament drive.
On the second leg of her Asian tour, Dr Rice was due to meet with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese officials, with the top agenda item the long-running campaign to convince the North into giving up its nuclear weapons programmes.
Other issues expected to be discussed included Iran's disputed nuclear ambitions, the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region, China's human rights and Taiwan.
Although analysts did not expect a breakthrough on North Korea during Dr Rice's three-country tour that began in Seoul and ends in Japan, chances of progress remained high, according to Christopher Hill, Dr Rice's chief nuclear negotiator.
'We found the Chinese very engaged and very interested in looking for a way forward,' Mr Hill, who is travelling with Dr Rice, said about recent contacts he has had in Asia to prepare for the tour.
China chairs the six-country talks pursuing North Korean disarmament negotiations which were launched in 2003. The other members are the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia.
China is regarded as having the most influence with the leadership in Pyongyang because it is the North's closest political ally and a major source of trade.
A landmark six-nation deal reached in February last year offers the North a million tonnes of fuel oil, normalised ties with the United States and Japan and a formal peace treaty, if it scraps all nuclear programmes and material.
In the current phase, the North agreed to disable its atomic plants and fully declare all nuclear programmes by the end of last year. But it missed the deadline amid a dispute with the United States over the declaration.
Dr Rice was to travel on Wednesday to Japan, a close US ally, for the last leg of her tour that is chiefly aimed at reviving the nuclear negotiations.
'I also talked to the South Koreans and the Japanese and we also felt we were on the same sheet of music,' Mr Hill said, using an apt musical metaphor.
Backed by the US State Department, the New York Philharmonic was in North Korea for a Tuesday evening concert aimed at breaking down barriers between the hardline communist nation and the United States.
But Dr Rice, an aspiring concert pianist in her youth, was not due to travel to Pyongyang for the concert or meet North Korean officials on her Asia tour that comes as the clock winds down on the Bush administration.
For China, Dr Rice's visit is also seen as an opportunity to discuss the issue of Taiwan, which is looking to hold a referendum next month on UN membership that Beijing views as a dangerous step towards independence.
China and Taiwan split in 1949 and Beijing has vowed to bring the island back into its political fold, by force if necessary.
Dr Rice landed in Beijing on Tuesday morning, and she was due to go straight into a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. She was scheduled to meet Mr Hu around 5:00 pm.
In his talks with Dr Rice on Monday, new South Korean President Lee Myung Bak vowed to 'do all he could to strengthen' cooperation with the United States in order to denuclearise North Korea, said Mr Hill.
Dr Rice's visit was seen as a way to overcome US differences with the outgoing centre-left administration of president Roh Moo Hyun, and ultimately boost the six-party talks.
Mr Lee, 66, has promised a firmer line with North Korea, which staged a nuclear test in October 2006, linking Seoul's aid more closely to disarmament.
In his speech, Mr Lee expressed willingness to meet North Korea's leader Kim Jong-ll and said inter-Korean relations must become more productive. 'Our attitude will be pragmatic, not ideological,' he added. -- AFP
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