US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here Sunday it is time for strong international action to stop political violence in Zimbabwe but China balked at US calls for a UN arms embargo.

Rice and her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi met in Beijing to discuss US plans to introduce measures this week at the UN Security Council, including both an arms embargo and a travel ban on President Robert Mugabe's regime.

"We believe that it is really now time for the international community to act strongly but we are consulting about what measures might be taken," Rice said after announcing plans for UN Security Council action.

She spoke just before Mugabe was sworn in Sunday for a sixth term of office as Zimbabwe president after being declared winner of a one-man election widely denounced throughout the world as a brutal and illegitimate farce.

Rice also hoped that an African Union meeting in Egypt on Monday would at least issue a "strong caution" to Mugabe "not to use violence against his own people."

China -- one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council along with Russia, the United States, Britain and France -- gave vague answers when asked if it supported an arms embargo.

"The most pressing task now is to stabilise the situation in Zimbabwe," said Yang, the Chinese foreign minister.

Yang expressed the hope that the Zimbabwe government and political opposition will "engage in a serious dialogue to find a proper solution" to Harare's handling of the March 29 election and June 27 runoff.

In contrast to strong US emphasis on UN Security Council action, Yang said China hoped that the "African countries in particular" would help resolve the crisis.

"China, as a responsible country, will also play a constructive role in this process," Yang promised without elaborating.

Yang, whose country is a past ally of Zimbabwe's, also admitted that a Chinese ship with a "very limited amount of conventional arms" did not deliver the cargo earlier this year after what he said was a request from Zimbabwe.

He said Zimbabwe and China signed the deal "long, long ago."

During wide-ranging talks here, the diplomats also consulted over international efforts to press Iran into giving up uranium enrichment while they hailed progress made last week for North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

China is a key player in efforts to deal with the nuclear programmes of both countries.

Yang said delegates from the six countries involved in negotiations to denuclearise North Korea would meet "pretty soon" to establish a process for verifying the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes.

Six-party foreign ministers will meet at the "appropriate time" to discuss the scope of the last phase of disarmament negotiations, he said.

Rice also expressed concerns about China's crackdown in Tibet, while Beijing faulted US views on the problem.

At the same time China announced it was resuming talks next month with the Dalai Lama's representatives, a position supported by Washington.

Yang thanked Rice for the concern she showed the Chinese people earlier Sunday when she visited the site of an earthquake that hit southwest China last month, leaving 88,000 people dead or missing and up to five million displaced.

"I've been tremendously impressed with the recovery, with the resilience of the people," Rice told journalists after touring the wrecked city of Dujiangyan, near the epicentre.

"It is really a sign of how the human spirit can recover from great devastation."

The United States has joined international relief efforts to fly life-saving supplies to the region where towns and villages were flattened by the 8.0 magnitude quake.

During her talks with China's leaders, Rice said she would discuss ways to persuade China's close neighbour and ally Myanmar to accept international aid following a cyclone that slammed the nation in early May.

Rice was set to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Monday.