Clinton visits China hoping to ease tensions in East Asia

SANYA, China - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Saturday made a rare visit by an American official to a Chinese island once a flash point in relations between the powers and pressed Beijing to settle territorial disputes with its smaller, wary neighbors.

The Obama administration's top diplomat also urged Chinese officials to use their influence with North Korea to keep the communist country from taking any provocative actions that might disrupt a summit of world leaders set for South Korea next month.

Clinton's main goal, though, was to seek Chinese help in lowering tensions across East Asia and she proposed hosting a three-way meeting between the United States, China and Japan to ease the latest regional flare-up: competing claims by China and Japan over East China Sea islands, a dispute that has soured ties between Beijing and Tokyo.

She conveyed the messages in a private meeting with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo on Hainan Island hours after similar talks in Vietnam with Chinese Foreign Minster Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of a summit of East Asian leaders.

"It is in all of our interests for China and Japan to have stable and peaceful relations," Clinton told reporters Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital.

Japanese officials have said they would welcome a U.S. role if a trilateral meeting was well prepared but neither Yang nor Dai indicated if China would accept U.S. mediation.

Publicly, China responded coolly to the offer. And, it made clear its unhappiness with comments Clinton made this week and again yesterday in which she said the islands are covered by a U.S.-Japan mutual defense pact even though Washington takes no position on their ultimate sovereignty. A statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website said Yang told Clinton that the United States should make no "wrong remarks" on the sensitive issue of the islands. - AP