US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and China’s foreign minister said today their governments had agreed to try to resume stalled talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear programme and called on the communist nation to show restraint.

China’s president Hu Jintao appears to have sent a special envoy to North Korea, a former South Korean politician said today, amid speculation that the North might conduct another nuclear test.

A special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao today told US President George Bush that China wants a strong UN response to North Korea’s claimed nuclear test, a White House spokesman said.

The chief US negotiator on North Korea met top Chinese officials today to discuss Pyongyang’s missile tests, amid stepped up efforts by the world powers to curb North’s provocative behaviour.

Japan and the United States have agreed to deploy advanced Patriot interceptor missiles on US bases in Japan for the first time, amid concerns North Korea may test-fire a long-range ballistic missile.

South Korea today revealed it had offered energy aid to impoverished North Korea as an incentive to encourage it to return to nuclear disarmament talks this month after more than a year of deadlock.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will continue his annual visits to a war shrine, a close aide said today, despite furious objections from China and other Asian countries who say the visits glorify Japan’s past wartime brutality.

China said diplomatic relations with Japan were at a three-decade low and that Tokyo – by refusing to face up to its militaristic past – was to blame.

China sees no need for another UN resolution against Iraq and believes weapons inspections should be strengthened as part of efforts to avert war.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s presentation to the UN Security Council has led to forceful calls that Iraq quickly provide more details of its weapons programmes.

The deadly bombing in Bali was a “brutal and inhuman act” that reinforces the need for the entire world and the United Nations to fight terrorism together, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said today.

It’s a cornerstone of China’s foreign policy, invoked vehemently whenever critics challenge its human rights record or its policy towards Taiwan: Don’t interfere in another country’s internal affairs.

China says it wants a dignified resolution to the spy plane row with the US "as soon as possible".

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has expressed regret over the death of a Chinese pilot when his jet fighter collided with a US spy plane.

The US has refused to apologise to the Chinese government for an incident in which a US spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet.