Asean: Hillary Clinton praises South China Sea deal 22 July 2011 Last updated at 06:48 GMT

 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has welcomed guidelines agreed between Asean countries and China over the disputed South China Sea.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said it would "go a long way" to bring "peace and stability" to the region.
The two were speaking before discussing the agreement at a bilateral meeting ahead of the Asean summit in Bali.
Meanwhile, North and South Korea have met for informal talks on the summit's sidelines.
The meeting between their nuclear representatives is the first high-level contact for many months.
'Signs of sincerity' On Thursday, leaders at Asean agreed a deal with Chinese officials aimed at establishing guidelines for talks on the South China Sea, a regional dispute which has led to a number of confrontations in the past.
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan all have overlapping claims to all or parts of the area, which is thought to contain significant oil and mineral reserves.
Mrs Clinton said she "commended" China and Asean "for working so closely together to include implementation guidelines for the declaration of conduct in the South China Sea".
She angered China at last year's Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit after saying maritime security in the region was in the US national security interest.
After the meeting between Mrs Clinton and Mr Yang, Chinese spokesman Liu Weiming said China had "raised its own concerns, which is that it is important to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China".
He referred to China's "major concerns" over "sensitive issues" such as Tibet.
"I sense that the US side understands the sensitivity of these issues and they agreed to further promote dialogue and mutual understanding," he said.
Mrs Clinton will meet her counterparts from the 10-nation Asean bloc and the wider East Asia Summit later on Friday, followed on Saturday by the Asean Regional Forum (ARF).
Her speech to leaders and diplomats on Saturday is expected to address the South China Sea issue, as well as North Korea's nuclear programme and the situation in Burma.
South and North Korea had not met at a high level since two fatal attacks on the South last year, which killed 50 people, the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul reports.
Seoul has demanded an apology or "signs of sincerity" from North Korea before resuming talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
North Korea walked out of long-running on-off talks - with China, the US, South Korea, Russia and Japan - on its nuclear ambitions two years ago, but has recently said it wants them to resume.
The US has said it wants to see discussions between North and South Korea before resuming wider talks.