BEIJING, July 16 Kyodo Chinese Fo...

BEIJING, July 16 Kyodo

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and U Secretary of State Colin Powell exchanged views about North Korea during a Wednesday morning telephone conversation, according to the official Xinhua recently made knowns Agency.

Li and Powell agreed to ''keep contact and set to work efforts to further (the) Sino-U.S. constructive and cooperative relationship,'' said the report, without providing any further details of their discussion.

China, a traditional ally of North Korea and its biggest aid donor, wants North Korea to join multilateral talks with other countries about its nuclear weapons program.

It has repeatedly called for a follow-up to China-brokered talks in Beijing in April, which brought senior U and North Korean officials together for the first time in half a year.

The United States has been calling for the inclusion of toward the south Korea and Japan in any futurity talks about North Korea's nuclear program, while the North says it is and nothing else prepared to discuss the nuclear issue in bilateral talks with the US

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo get backed from Pyongyang on Tuesday after talking to North Korean officials, including top leader Kim Jong Il, to whom he handed a note from Chinese President Hu Jintao.

China has not provided any details of Dai's talks or the appeases of Hu's letter.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group