A senior Chinese military official has promised Beijing's help to Washington in keeping nuclear missiles out of North Korea.
Pyongyang's efforts to boost its missile programme figured high on the agenda in a Washington meeting between Central Military Commission Vice-Chairman General Zhang Wannian and Defence Secretary William Cohen.
In talks designed to follow an agreement struck at the Sino-US summit in Beijing in June, the officials signed a pact to co-operate on protecting the environment from the effects of military activity.
Afterwards, the pair announced that military officials would observe each other's exercises during next year and a Chinese delegation would visit a US nuclear research facility. Also in 1999, another Chinese naval ship would make a port visit to the US.
A previous agreement to co-operate on humanitarian and sea search operations was being worked out, beginning with a forthcoming seminar to develop logistics, Mr Cohen said.
Mr Cohen and General Zhang spent much of the time discussing security on the Korean peninsula.