It was China's most detailed response yet to the crisis sparked by North Korea's shelling of an island held by the South and came as retaliatory US-South Korean naval exercises criticised by Beijing got underway.

"The Chinese side, after careful study, proposes to have emergency consultations among the heads of delegation to the six-party talks in early December in Beijing to exchange views on major issues of concern to the parties at present," said Wu Dawei, China's top North Korea envoy.

Wu stressed that the consultations did not constitute a formal resumption of the stalled six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear programmes but he hoped they would lead to such a resumption soon.

"The international community, particularly the members of the six-party talks, are deeply concerned," said Wu.

Tensions in the region have been on a knife edge since North Korea bombarded the South-held island with artillery on Tuesday, provoking world condemnation and retaliatory fire from the South.

China has come under increasing international pressure from the United States, South Korea, Japan and others to step in forcefully to restrain the unpredictable North Korean regime.

However, China, which typically refrains from publicly criticising its neighbour and longtime ally Pyongyang, had so far only called for restraint from all sides and a early restart to the six-party talks.

Earlier on Sunday the United States and its ally South Korea staged a potent show of strength with naval exercises aimed at deterring the North.

Residents of the flashpoint Yeonpyeong island scurried for shelter and South Korea's defence ministry urged hundreds of journalists to leave, warning the North may use the war games far to the south as a pretext for a new attack.

The drill, spearheaded by the massive US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the George Washington, has been opposed by China, which has warned against any further "provocations" that could escalate tensions.

The South's President Lee Myung-Bak, faced with public fury at the North over the second military crisis in eight months, told visiting Chinese official Dai Bingguo on Sunday that China should be "fairer and more responsible" in its relations with the two Koreas.

The frequently stalled six-party forum, aimed at curbing Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions in exchange for aid and other inducements, is chaired by China and also involves the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia.

The talks secured a 2007 deal under which North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear facilities in exchange for fuel aid.

But Pyongyang left the forum in April 2009 and conducted its second nuclear test a month later.

Japan said it would take a cautious approach on China's proposal.

"We would deal with the issue cautiously while cooperating with South Korea and the United States," Tetsuro Fukuyama, the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, told reporters.

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