China has stepped up efforts to break the deadlock on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue as senior Chinese negotiators and their foreign counterparts met on Friday to discuss Pyongyang's missile tests.

	U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill (L) meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in Beijing July 7, 2006. Hill arrived in Beijing early Friday for a day of discussions with Chinese leaders on North Korea's missile launches. [Reuters]

State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan said China has been committed to preserving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, making it nuclear-free and pushing forward with the Six-Party Talks.

"We will continue to make constructive efforts and maintain close contact with all sides" on the nuclear issue, he told US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill during a one-hour meeting.

Hill said his country attaches importance to the six-nation talks and is willing to settle the problems through diplomacy.

Washington hopes Pyongyang "can return to the framework of the Six-Party Talks as soon as possible," he told reporters.

The United States has achieved "very good understanding" with China on the current situation, and hopes to work with China to deal with it, the US envoy said.

Hill, who is also chief US envoy for the six-nation talks, arrived in Beijing on Friday morning after Wednesday's test-firing of seven missiles by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Hill also talked to Vice-Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and met with Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in the morning.

He concluded his brief stay in Beijing in the afternoon and headed to Seoul.

Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's chief negotiator to the Six-Party Talks, also met Wu in the afternoon.

"It is important that China take an appropriate response concerning this (missile test) issue and I sought China's co-operation" at the Security Council, Sasae told reporters.

The meetings came only hours after President Hu Jintao and his US counterpart George W. Bush spoke by phone about the missile launches.

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