BEIJING, May 12 -- The Bush administration is depending heavily on China to rescue a faltering diplomatic effort to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons effort but has suggested no specific pressure tactics to Beijing, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.

    "The actual diplomacy for what the Chinese will do is going to be left to the Chinese," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

    Talks involving China, the United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea have been sidelined for nearly a year while concerns mount within the administration that North Korea may be preparing for a nuclear weapons test.

    In Beijing on Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said, "We are not in favor of exerting pressure or imposing sanctions" on North Korea. "We believe that such measure are not necessarily effective."

    The spokesman said China prefers resolving the dispute through dialogue.

    "We have normal bilateral relations" with North Korea, the Chinese Embassy spokesman, Maoming Chu, said in Washington. "We don't try to solve problems through pressure or sanctions."

    In an interview taped for CNN's "Larry King Live," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "One just has to continue to work diplomatically."

    Boucher, meanwhile, said that while diplomacy is the best way to solve the North Korean nuclear problem, taking the issue to the U.N. Security Council is not being ruled out.

    "The fact is, the Security Council can and will, if necessary, take up some of these issues," he said.

    The council has the power to impose sanctions, but China as a permanent member of the council could exercise its veto to block any punishment of North Korea.

    "We have made very clear that we have seen the North Koreans escalate their rhetoric, make continued claims," Boucher said. "We've seen a pattern develop from North Korea in recent months that indicates they are headed in the wrong direction."

    The United States has reached out to China because of its strong economic and political ties to the Pyongyang government, while in the meantime publicly offering North Korea one-on-one talks with U.S. negotiators once six-party negotiations are resumed.

    In their talks with the Chinese, Rice, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and other American diplomats have left it up to the Chinese to decide what tactics to use, the senior U.S. official said.

    White House spokesman Scott McClellan said "all parties in the region want to see a nuclear-free (Korean) peninsula. And we stay in close contact with our partners in the region on these matters and work closely with them.

    "China has made it clear North Korea needs to come back to the six party talks. That's where our focus remains," McClellan said.

    (Source: China Daily/Agencies)