US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she will travel to China after the New Year, her last scheduled trip before President George W. Bush's administration steps down.

"I will go after the first of the year to China for the 30th anniversary of the establishment of US-China relations. I think it's important to do it," Rice said in an interview with AFP.

"We are looking at what else I might do on that trip," Rice said, adding it would be her "last trip" before Bush and his administration leave office on January 20 and make way for President-elect Barack Obama.

The United States and China, an emerging world power, often meet to discuss North Korea's nuclear disarmament, Iran's nuclear ambitions, international terrorism, human rights and other issues.

Earlier this month China chaired talks with the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia that failed to reach agreement on how to determine if North Korea had told the truth about its atomic programs.

It left a new impasse in the six-party negotiations aimed at scrapping Pyongyang's weapons-grade nuclear programs under a landmark 2007 agreement.