China urged restraint in diplomacy with North Korea on Wednesday and said it would not support sanctions, but expressed frustration with its neighbour and old ally over its July missile tests.
China and the United States discussed warning North Korea against conducting a nuclear test, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said in Beijing, and a senior Chinese official said there was still room for negotiations.
"The best way to settle the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula would be through dialogue, so we don't support any kind of sanctions," Liu Jianchao, director-general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Information Department, said at the Reuters China Century Summit.
China is North Korea's long-time Communist ally and provides crucial economic and energy support, but it expressed dismay after Pyongyang test-fired a series of missiles on July 5 despite a public plea not to from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Liu said China was committed to carrying its relationship with North Korea forward but added, "that does not mean we see eye to eye on all the issues". "We were very much disturbed and worried about the situation of some time ago, as a result of the launch of the missiles by North Korea," he said.
Liu said China was also trying to use its influence to convince Iran to respond "more positively" to international demands for it to halt its uranium enrichment, which Western powers fear is a cover for making nuclear weapons.
"The Iranian president said that Iran had no intention of possessing a nuclear bomb," Liu said of talks between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Chinese President Hu Jintao earlier this year.
"We hope that what he meant was true and we hope that the Iranian side will prove to the international community their real intention and also respond more constructively to the proposals," he added.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also said on Tuesday that sanctions against North Korea and Iran could increase tensions and that he hoped Tehran would heed international concerns.
US intelligence has also detected suspicious vehicle movement around North Korea's test site, a US television news report said last month, but Seoul and Washington officials have since played down the possibility of a nuclear test.
"We talked about the need to make very clear to the DPRK that this would a very, very unwelcome development," Hill told reporters after meeting Wu Dawei, China's chief diplomat in charge of negotiations with North Korea. The Communist state's official title is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Pyongyang has boycotted six-party talks, hosted by China, which are aimed at coaxing it to scrap its nuclear ambitions. The talks, which also include the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia, have been dormant since last November.
Pyongyang refuses to return to the negotiating table until Washington lifts financial restrictions imposed after claims that North Korea counterfeited US money and traded illegal drugs.
In Seoul on Wednesday, vice foreign ministers from South Korea and Japan met to discuss an array of issues, including North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.
Pyongyang continued to issue combative rhetoric, with the Rodong Sinmun paper saying countries needed to prepare "for beating back of any surprise armed attacks", according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
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