The meeting with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo is part of a three-day visit by a delegation led by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg aimed at getting China to rein in its North Korean ally.

After arriving in Beijing on Wednesday, Steinberg met with Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai to discuss "bilateral and regional issues, including the Korean peninsula," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.

"They also discussed preparations for the upcoming trip to Washington by President Hu Jintao," he added.

On Saturday the US delegation will head to Japan, which was rattled by a North Korean artillery attack on a South Korean border island last month that killed two soldiers and two civilians.

The State Department said Tuesday that Pyongyang has at least one other suspected nuclear site after a uranium enrichment facility was shown to a visiting US scientist last month, raising concerns across the region.

In recent weeks top US officials have repeatedly called on China to pressure its communist ally while rejecting Beijing's calls for renewed six-party talks aimed at halting North Korea's nuclear drive.

North Korea pulled out of those talks -- involving China, Russia, the United States, Japan and South Korea -- in April 2009 and sparked international outrage with a nuclear test the following month.

The US delegation's visit coincides with a visit by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan to Washington, where he has been holding talks on trade disputes between the world's two largest economies.

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