July 17 (Bloomberg) -- China's government called on the U.S. and North Korea to return to a 1994 agreement in order to defuse a dispute about North Korea's nuclear weapons development program.

China today sent Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo to the U.S. for two days of talks with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said. Dai returned on Tuesday from four days of talks in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

The standoff started in October when North Korea told a visiting U.S. official the country was developing enriched uranium that can be used in a nuclear bomb. The move violated the 1994 agreement, under which Western countries agreed to provide aid in exchange for North Korea ceasing nuclear development.

``The 1994 framework has played a role for 10 years,'' Kong said at a regular media briefing in Beijing. ``We hope this framework can be continued. China is trying to get the two sides to sit down and talk.''

China's diplomatic activity comes as North Korean soldiers fired machine guns at South Korean troops on the border. The South Koreans returned fire, South Korean military spokesman Colonel Lee Hong Ki said in Seoul.

The two sides occasionally trade fire across the border, one of the world's most heavily armed with 1.2 million troops facing off. The last shooting occurred in November 2001, when Northern troops fired as many as three shots, breaking a window at a South Korean guard post and prompting Southern troops to return fire.

Meeting

The U.S., North Korea and China will probably meet as early as next month, with the talks later enlarged to include South Korea and Japan, Agence France-Presse reported, citing South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

North Korea insists on one-on-one talks with the U.S. to end the dispute. The U.S. in turn is demanding that the issue be resolved through talks among many nations. Dai discussed the format with Northern leader Kim Jong Il during his visit to Pyongyang, AFP said.

Yesterday, Powell told reporters in Washington that he expects developments soon as China, which supplies fuel and food to North Korea, steps up pressure on its neighbor to agree to talks.

``The diplomatic track is alive and well,'' Powell said, following a ``long conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who briefed Powell on Dai's trip. ``I expect to see some developments along that track in the very near future.''

China hosted talks with the U.S. and North Korea in Beijing in April which made little progress. This week, former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry said in an interview with the Washington Post that the U.S. and North Korea are drifting toward war, possibly as early as this year.

Last Updated: July 17, 2003 07:21 EDT