China agrees that "strong measures" are needed against North Korea over its reported nuclear test, a White House official said this evening after a senior Chinese envoy met President George W. Bush.
China sent its former foreign minister, Tang Jiaxuan, to Washington to make the case for a measured response to North Korea as it resisted some elements of a package of sanctions Washington is pushing at the United Nations.
JD Crouch, White House deputy national security adviser, acknowledged the "possibility for some differences" over the specifics of the US-proposed a UN Security Council resolution.
But he said there was a "broad understanding" with China over the way forward and said the details would be negotiated.
"The Chinese came with a message that they agree that there had to be some strong measures that were taken to convince the North Koreans to get back on a positive negotiating track," Crouch told reporters on Air Force One as he flew with the president on a visit to St. Louis.
Tang, a member of China's state council, met Bush and members of his national security team in the White House after Beijing said sanctions should not be aimed at punishment but at encouraging a peaceful end to the crisis.
At the United Nations, China and Russia cast doubt on the possibility that the Security Council would vote on Friday on sanctions proposed by the United States, as Washington wants.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met Tang, also made clear there could be some delay in the vote. "I don't know that it will be tomorrow but I think it will be soon ... Things are moving along," she told reporters in Washington.
Ms Rice and Mr Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, met Tang on Thursday and then they all had further talks with Bush in the Oval Office.
"There was a strong emphasis on both the Chinese and the U.S. side that we needed to find a way to get the North Koreans to implement their agreement ... to denuclearize the Korean peninsula," Crouch said. Tang was due to fly on later to Moscow.
The announcement from Pyongyang on Monday that it had carried out a nuclear test prompted stiff Chinese and Russian condemnation and had encouraged U.S. hopes for a united response from the big powers at the United Nations.
But both Russia and China are anxious to avoid driving their impoverished neighbor further into a corner, possibly triggering instability on the Korean peninsula.