China would welcome meeting between U.S. and North Korea

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said on Tuesday that Beijing expects the United States to hold a bilateral meeting soon with North Korea and said his government would welcome such a move.

"I expect that North Korea and the United States will soon hold talks, and from our perspective we encourage this," He told a news conference after a summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

China and the United States are key players in efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program, and the North has recently made some conciliatory gestures after months of tensions following its second ever nuclear test blast in May.

Washington has said it would dispatch its first official envoy to Pyongyang to bring new life to stalled six-country disarmament-for-aid talks with the impoverished North.

(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Ken Wills)