The defence consultations will be held in Beijing on February 27-28, the People's Daily reported on its website, citing an unnamed official with the US Department of Defence.

"We want to continue exchanges with China and are seeking positive cooperative ties," the official was quoted as saying.

The defence talks will resume only days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes her first visit to China from February 20-22 as the top envoy of the new administration of US President Barack Obama, the report said.

The talks will take place once a year and could include discussions on the fight against global terrorism, it said.

China called off high-level military exchanges last October after the Pentagon notified Congress that it planned to sell 6.5 billion dollars of military hardware to Taiwan.

Beijing said the sales threatened Sino-US defence cooperation.

But defence ministry spokesman Colonel Hu Changming said last month that China was willing to resume military cooperation with the Obama administration.

"In this new period we hope that both China and the US could make joint efforts to create favourable conditions and improve and promote military-to-military relations," Hu said.

"We call on the US to remove the obstacles to the growth of military relations between the two countries and to create favourable conditions for the healthy growth of military relations."

Subsequently the navies of China and the United States have shared information in the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia, where both nations have sent military vessels, the report said.

Since the end of a civil war in 1949, China has viewed Taiwan as a breakaway territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, while the United States has pledged to defend the island.

earlier related report
Clinton heads to Asia vowing to deepen bonds with US
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is about to leave for Asia, pledging to deepen US bonds with the region in order to tackle the global economic crisis and climate change as well as prevent nuclear proliferation.

The new US secretary of state's choice of travel to Japan, where she is expected on Monday, as well as to Indonesia, South Korea and China, reflects the quest for a long-term strategy to deal with the changing dynamic in world economic, political and military power, analysts say.

Her predecessors usually traveled first to Europe or the Middle East.

Two days ahead of her departure, Clinton said she was "ready to work with leaders in Asia to resolve the economic crisis" and "strengthen our historic partnerships and alliances."

In her first foreign policy speech delivered before the New York-based Asia Society, Clinton said she also is "ready to help prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Asia."

Clinton added that North Korea's nuclear program remains "the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia."

She said President Barack Obama's administration would build a strong relationship with the reclusive Stalinist regime if it scraps its nuclear program, which alarmed the world in 2006 with the test of a nuclear device.

If Pyongyang "completely and verifiably" eliminates the program, Washington "will be willing to normalize bilateral relations, replace the peninsula's longstanding armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty."

She added Washington would also "assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people," who face hunger and economic hardships.

Under a landmark deal in 2007 with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, North Korea agreed to eliminate its weapons-grade nuclear programs in exchange for energy aid.

The talks stalled late last year when North Korea balked at its five partners' demands for inspections and other steps to verify disarmament.

Clinton also said it is "incumbent on North Korea to avoid any provocative action and unhelpful rhetoric toward South Korea," after North Korea scrapped military accords with the South in the last few weeks.

Reports from South Korea also say it is preparing for the launch of a long-range missile.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs said Clinton will arrive in a region where US soft power -- the use of economic, diplomatic and cultural clout to influence the world rather than brute military force -- still holds sway.

Clinton's travel plans show "the Obama administration is determined to make use of this strength to address the many challenges in the region," Thomas Wright, an executive at the Chicago Council, said in a statement.

The council based its conclusion on a 2008 survey of 6,000 people in China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam.

US officials said Clinton will travel with Todd Stern, her special envoy for climate change, and Christopher Hill, the Bush administration's negotiator on North Korea who is now a leading candidate to become ambassador to Iraq.

Michael Green, a former Asia adviser to president George W. Bush, said Clinton appears to have chosen Japan for her first Asia stop to smooth feathers she ruffled there when she wrote during her campaign for the US presidency that the US-China relationship will be the most important one.

In Tokyo, Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) expert Nicholas Szechenyi said, Clinton will discuss the financial crisis with Japanese leaders, possibly with a view to coordinating positions before the G20 summit in April in London.

Japan will likely raise its concerns about Japanese nationals whom North Korea abducted to train as spies during the Cold War after complaining the United States has relegated the issue in the nuclear disarmament negotiations.

Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at CSIS, expected Clinton's visit to Beijing to tackle North Korea, the financial crisis and climate change, but tread carefully on human rights.

China, she said, may repeat that it wants the United States to stop arms sales to Taiwan, but may settle for some "face-saving gesture by Washington to resume" high-level military exchanges suspended last year.

In Indonesia, the only stop in Southeast Asia, Green said Clinton may lay the groundwork for a "transformed relationship, new strategic partnership" with the world's largest Muslim-majority country.

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