Condoleezza Rice meets with China's new foreign minister

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with China's new foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, on the sidelines of international discussions in Egypt on Iraq's future.

Photo: Condoleezza Rice meets with China's new foreign minister

Rice had good discussions on a range of issue during a dinner Wednesday evening with Yang, deputy spokesman Tom Casey said. Yang, a former ambassador to Washington, was appointed foreign minister last week.

Casey said that Rice, during her stay in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm-el-Sheik, also will meet separately with the foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and Russia. With China and the United States, all are members of the six-party North Korean nuclear disarmament talks.

That process has been stalled since the North missed an April 14 deadline to shut down its main nuclear reactor because of a delay in the resolution of a separate financial dispute with the U.S.