Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama to help defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula, warning they could otherwise escalate and get out of hand.
Hu in a telephone conversation with Obama on Sunday said that if the current situation is not dealt with, "tensions could well rise on the Korean Peninsula or spin out of control, which would not be in anyone's interest".
The Chinese president called for a "cool and rational" response from all parties to the conflict.
"The most pressing task at present is to calmly deal with the situation and prevent it from becoming worse," Xinhua quoted Hu as saying.
"China has always believed dialogue and negotiations to be the only right path to deal with North Korea's nuclear issues and to secure a durable peace on the peninsula".
For his part, Obama urged Hu to send "a clear message" to North Korea that its shelling of South Korean territory was "unacceptable". RIA Novosti
