Top US and Chinese diplomats will grapple with how to deal with the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea in meetings that Washington hopes will help ease tensions with Beijing.
US deputy secretary of state James Steinberg and the National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs, Jeffrey Bader, were due to arrive in Beijing today for the talks with Chinese officials.
Mr Steinberg will be the most senior US diplomat to visit Beijing since a flurry of disputes in January and February over Internet censorship, trade, arms sales to Taiwan and Tibet unsettled ties with China.
"We've gone through a bit of a bumpy path here, and I think there's an interest both within the United States and China to get back to business as usual as quickly as possible," US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington.
China, too, appears to want to lower the temperature of friction with the United States, a key trade partner.
Beijing has not yet acted on its threat to sanction US companies involved in the Taiwan arms sales, and Premier Wen Jiabao said last weekend he wanted trade friction with the United States to ease.
Mr Crowley said the talks in Beijing would cover Iran, where the United States and other Western powers want China's backing for a proposed UN resolution slapping new sanctions on Tehran, which they say is seeking the means to make nuclear weapons.
Iran was China's third biggest source of imported crude oil last year, and Beijing has long been reluctant to support stiff sanctions against Tehran.
Reuters