The third round of the US-China Senior Dialogue a forum agreed by President Hu Jintao and US President George W. Bush at the 2004 APEC summit meeting will be held in Beijing this week, the Foreign Ministry said.

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns will represent the United States in the Dialogue, inaugurated in 2005 by Executive Vice-Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and former US Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick.

The dialogue reflects the importance and depth of the China-US relationship, providing a venue to consider the strategic implications of policies in a variety of areas. The goal is to better guide co-operation and manage differences beteen the two countries.

Robert Joseph, US under secretary of state for international security issues, will also be in Beijing to hold talks with senior Chinese officials together with Burns.

Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso yesterday said Japan and the United States wanted their foreign ministers to meet counterparts from China, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Russia next week to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear arms programmes.

The proposed meeting would take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum meeting in Hanoi, Aso told reporters after talks with Burns and Joseph.

Burns will also visit Seoul for the first sub-ministerial session of the US-ROK Strategic Consultations for Allied Partnership (SCAP).

SCAP is designed to not only address key outstanding issues on the Korean Peninsula, but key regional and global matters as well.

Source: China Daily