WASHINGTON - THE United States is to hold high-level talks with China to address concerns over Beijing's deft strategy of boosting ties with developing nations through a no-strings-attached aid programme, an official said.

Washington hopes to launch this 'new high-level dialogue' soon, US deputy assistant secretary of state Thomas Christensen said on Tuesday at a hearing of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a Congress-mandated panel.

Cash-flush China has recently made major diplomatic and economic inroads in mostly resource-rich nations in Africa and Latin America, and Pacific Islands by giving aid without imposing any conditions.

'We are concerned that by giving aid without conditions and without coordination with the international community, China's programmes could run counter to the efforts by these other actors to use targeted and sustainable aid to promote transparency and good governance,' Mr Christensen said.

'We believe that such conditional aid programmes are the best way to guarantee long-term growth and stability in the developing world,' he said.

The United States, he said, wanted China to harmonise its overseas investment and foreign assistance practices with those developed by international institutions like the IMF and World Bank.

Mr Christensen said Beijing should coordinate with the United States, EU and other major sources of aid and investment to ensure that its programmes 'do not undermine the objectives of our programs, and also to help China improve the success of its own programmes'.

'In this spirit, we hope to soon launch a new high-level dialogue with China on development assistance,' he said, referring to the soon to be held talks on Beijing's controversial aid programme.

Aside from its interest to secure access to resources necessary for its continued economic development, China uses aid to woo developing nations in competition with Taiwan for diplomatic allies.

Mr Christensen also said that plans to restore a US-China human rights dialogue this spring would provide an opportunity to narrow their differences on the sensitive topic.

For example, he said, bilateral cooperation to battle terrorism was hindered by China's loose definition of what constitutes a terrorist or criminal offence.

'Where the Chinese government sees a threat to domestic stability or national security, other governments might simply see a peaceful expression of dissent.

'Our failure to speak the same language on human rights endangers our national security by potentially weakening our ability to fight together against a common threat,' he said.

Mr Christensen warned that it was possible that China would at some point in the future attempt to use its growing military power and political and economic influence 'to undermine' the US-led international system that it had benefited from and 'be able to inflict severe damage to US interests'.

'We must prepare for this contingency without allowing that preparation to become the core of our China strategy,' he said. -- AFP