China on Monday called for "maximum restraint" on the Korean peninsula, saying no one had a right to "preach or promote conflict" after South Korea staged a live-fire drill on a border island.

Beijing, North Korea's main ally, had earlier warned that any bloodshed on the Korean peninsula would be a "national tragedy", as tensions soared in the build-up to Monday's drill on the island bombarded by Pyongyang last month.

"China always maintains that peace and stability must be maintained on the peninsula. This is a goal we have been working very hard to achieve all along," Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told reporters.

"No one has any right to preach or promote conflict or war, and no one has any right to cause bloodshed between the peoples in the north and south of the peninsula," he said when asked to comment on the drill carried out by Seoul.

In his comments, delivered at a press conference following a meeting with Australian officials on human rights issues, Cui neither directly criticised the South nor warned Beijing's ally Pyongyang against retaliation.

The Chinese official said dialogue was the only way forward to resolve the crisis sparked by the North's November 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong island, which left four people dead including two civilians.

"In recent weeks and months, we have had quite intensive diplomacy with the relevant parties related to the Korean peninsula," Cui said.

"Whatever the differences and disputes relevant parties may have, they can only be addressed through dialogue and negotiation rather than by conflict or war."

In a subsequent statement, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu called on all parties concerned to exercise "maximum restraint" and take a "responsible attitude" in order to keep the situation from escalating further.

US troubleshooter Bill Richardson, who was wrapping up a trip to Pyongyang as the drill was carried out, has described the situation on the peninsula as a "tinderbox" and urged North Korea to show "maximum restraint" over the drill.

In New York, China made a "strong appeal" at the United Nations for restraint by the two Koreas and vowed to make new efforts to ease the military tensions.

"We strongly appeal relevant parties to exercise maximum restraint, act in a responsible manner and avoid increase of tensions," China's deputy ambassador Wang Min said in a rare public statement at the UN.

"China has spared no efforts to engage both sides of the peninsula," Wang added, highlighting recent ministerial contacts with North and South Korea.

"China strongly urges both sides of the peninsula to keep calm and restraint, solve issues through peaceful dialogue and engagement. China will continue to make our efforts toward this end," he said.

China blocked efforts at the UN Security Council to agree a statement on the Korea crisis and Russia warned that the international community was now left without "a game plan" to counter escalating tensions.

earlier related report
UN council fails to agree on North Korea
United Nations (AFP) Dec 20, 2010 - The UN Security Council has failed to agree a statement on the Korean military crisis, with Russia warning that the international community was now left without "a game plan" to counter escalating tensions.

China on Sunday fended off Western demands that North Korea be publicly condemned for its November 23 artillery assault on Yeonpyeong island which killed four South Koreans, diplomats said.

It even rejected a proposed statement which did not mention North Korea or the Yeonpyeong name in a paragraph on the attack, diplomats said.

China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations Wang Min said his country had voiced its deep worries over the current situation on the Korean Peninsula, called on the parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint and return to the negotiation table at an early date, Xinhua news agency reported.

Wang told the meeting that "bloodshed and conflict would lead to a national tragedy of fratricide" between the two Koreas, damage regional stability and affect neighbouring countries, according to Xinhua.

But Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin emerged from the Security Council to explain how eight hours of formal negotiations, and private talks which included the ambassadors from North and South Korea, had failed.

Unofficial contacts were to continue but US ambassador Susan Rice, the Security Council president for December, told reporters it was "safe to predict that the gaps that remain are unlikely to be bridged."

Russia demanded the meeting hoping for a Council statement to send a "restraining signal" to the two Koreas and to call on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to send a special envoy to negotiate with the rival states, Churkin said.

He expressed hope that a UN envoy could still go, warning that the international community now has no weapon against the spiraling tensions.

"Now we have a situation with very serious political tension and no game plan on the diplomatic side," Churkin said.

Six nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons have come to a halt "and there is no other diplomatic activity, so we believe that there must be an initiative."

The ambassador reaffirmed a call by the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers for South Korea to call off a live-firing drill near Yeonpyeong. North Korea has said it will retaliate against the exercise.

But the United States again strongly condemned the communist North's "unprovoked aggression" and defended South Korea's right to stage drills.

"The majority of council members made clear their view that it was important to clearly condemn the events of November 23 and the attack by DPRK (North Korea) on Yeonpyeong island," Rice said.

Britain proposed a statement which said the council "condemns the attack launched by the DPRK on the ROK (South Korea) on November 23."

In an effort to overcome China's objections, Russia produced a new draft which said simply: "The members of the Security Council condemned the shelling of 23 November 2010 resulting in the loss of human life, including civilians, and strongly deplored the aggravation of tension in the Korean peninsula it led to."

That was blocked by China, diplomats told AFP.

Rice said most council members opposed a statement "that was ambiguous in some fashion about what had transpired in the run up to today and simply to pretend that time began today.

"That's not the case. There is a history, there have been two very serious attacks by DPRK on the Republic of Korea over the last nine months.

"The vast majority of the Council thinks that that needs to be clearly stated and condemned."

She said the Seoul government had shown "enormous restraint" ever since the warship Cheonam was sunk in March with the loss of 46 crew.

"The planned exercises are fully consistent with South Korea's legal right to self defense," Rice declared.

"It has been done and notified transparently, responsibly, and will not occur in a fashion that we believe gives North Korea any excuse to respond in the fashion that it has threatened to do."

North Korea had warned of a "disaster" if the firing drill were to take place on the contested sea border. But after they had been conducted, North Korea's military said they were "not worth reacting" to, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency.