The meeting, broadcast on China's state television, is the first reported contact between senior Chinese and North Korean leaders since Pyongyang stunned the world last week with a deadly artillery strike on a South Korean island.

"To continuously consolidate and develop friendly and cooperative Sino-North Korean ties is the unswerving strategic policy of the Chinese party and government," Wu Bangguo told his North Korean counterpart Choe Thae-Bok.

Choe, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, is on an official visit to China that will end Saturday. Wu and Choe made no mention of the current tense situation in the comments broadcast on state television.

North Korea's shelling last Tuesday left four people dead and led to increased tensions in the region.

The United States and South Korea responded to the incident by staging a major joint show of naval strength intended to deter Pyongyang from repeating last week's artillery bombardment.

China, meanwhile, has come under growing international pressure to step in forcefully to restrain the unpredictable regime in Pyongyang but has so far refrained from joining world criticism of its ally.

Media reports have said that Kim Yong-Il, the head of the international department of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, is also in Beijing but there has been no official confirmation of the visit.

According to other unconfirmed reports, China's top foreign policymaker Dai Bingguo is due to visit North Korea this week.

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