"China has a critical role to play" in tamping down skyrocketing tensions on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of what Washington has described as belligerent behavior by Pyongyang, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said.

After North Korea's deadly shelling of a South Korean island last month, President Barack Obama phoned his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao this week to encourage China to rein in its unpredictable ally Pyongyang.

Then trilateral talks in Washington Monday brought together the United States, Japan and South Korea -- but not China, even though the others said it is key to pressuring the North.

"It appears to be the flavor of the week, if you were to read the newspapers... that somehow the US-Chinese relationship is experiencing a serious downturn or freeze, or whatever the expressions are," Steinberg said in a speech at the Center for American Progress.

"Frankly, we don't see it that way," Steinberg stressed. "We believe in the interest of both the United States and China... to work together to achieve solutions to the world's most vexing problems."

North Korea shelled a South Korean border island on November 23, killing two marines and two civilians, and then it revealed a uranium enrichment program that alarmed US scientists.

China is North Korea's only major ally, and the impoverished country's economic and political lifeline.

A Washington Post report Tuesday indicated a change of tack by the Obama administration in its approach to China, suggesting the White House increasingly was short on patience with Beijing.

But Steinberg stepped back from the tense talk about China, and appeared to try to put a less distressed face on the latest potentially dangerous developments involving North Korea.

"We welcome the rise of a successful, strong and prosperous China that plays a greater role in global affairs," he said.

And recent tensions on the Korean Peninsula underscore the need for greater regional and Sino-US cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation, he said.

"We want to work with China to address this challenge," he stressed, and cited "important successes" in the past that have demonstrated the two powers were able to work effectively together.

He also blamed North Korea's current behavior, not China's actions or inaction, for greater strains currently in northeast Asia.

Asked about the context of North Korea's actions and its succession, Steinberg said Pyongyang needed "a strong message of the necessity of the North Koreans to exercise restraint -- that's what is creating the instability and the fragility.

"There does not seem to be effective restraints on North Korea engaging in these provocations," he said. "And we have to take steps to make clear that the danger comes from this kind of provocative behavior."

Steinberg also reiterated the US position that any renewed talks with North Korea would need to be preceded by some "concrete steps" by Pyongyang.

"We need a clear indication from North Korea" that it is respecting its commitments," he said.

In the wake of the shelling, Beijing called for emergency talks among envoys to the stalled six-nation negotiations on North Korean denuclearization, which involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

But Washington, Seoul and Tokyo balked, and instead held their three-way Washington gathering.

On the hot-button human rights issue, Steinberg stressed: "this is an important subject matter between our two countries."

"The United States continues to be concerned at the Chinese government's tight control of activities, and the people authorities in China deem threatening to the Communist Party," he added.

"We hope that China will take positive steps on human rights including the release of Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo," Steinberg stressed in an address on China at the Center for American Progress.

In Oslo, the Nobel Institute said that 19 countries will shun Friday's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo for jailed Chinese dissident after Chinese pressure for a global boycott.

But in Beijing, China slammed the Nobel committee ahead of the prize ceremony for Liu Xiaobo, calling its members "clowns" and saying most of the world backed China.

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