Negroponte arrived Saturday for a three-day visit and met with Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo for talks the US State Department had said would touch on a range of issues including Iran, Iraq, the North Korean nuclear pact and trade.

But they spent Saturday explaining their positions on touchy bilateral topics such as the perceived threat of China's military rise and US plans to sell 450 air and ground missiles to Taiwan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

The planned purchase by democratic Taiwan has upset the leaders of China's Communist Party, which views the island as a renegade province to be reunited with the motherland.

"In order to ensure the healthy development of China-US relations, China resolutely opposes US weapons sales to Taiwan," Qin quoted Dai as telling Negroponte during their two-hour meeting.

Ties had already cooled somewhat after US Vice President Dick Cheney's comments, on a trip to Australia, that China's military growth and recent test of a satellite-killer missile did not jibe with its stated peaceful aims.

Qin said Dai told Negroponte that China was not to be feared.

"China will always adhere to the path of peaceful development. In international affairs it will continue to be a constructive and cooperative participant. China's development is peaceful and poses no threat to the United States or to the world," Qin said.

Negroponte's stop in Beijing is the second leg of a trip that has already taken him to Japan and will include a stop next week in South Korea.

All three are US partners in the six-nation effort to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and part of his trip is expected to focus on how to make sure Pyongyang holds up its end of the deal.

After exhaustive negotiations, the United States and North Korea signed a new six-nation agreement last month under which Pyongyang agreed to give up its nuclear weapons programmes in exchange for economic and energy aid.

Negroponte, formerly the top US spy chief and installed last month as number two to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told the Senate during his confirmation hearings that the US should pursue a policy of engagement with China "on all levels," rather than one of confrontation.

China and the US had worked closely together on hammering out the North Korea nuclear deal.

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