Beijing urged the United States Thursday to respect its interests in the Asia Pacific, as US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta began a visit to the region aimed at shoring up US naval power.

Panetta's visit follows the strategic shift towards Asia announced by US President Barack Obama last year, and comes amid renewed regional tensions over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Asked about Panetta's visit to Vietnam, Singapore and India, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said China hoped the United States would "play a positive and constructive role in the region".

"We also hope the US will respect China's interests and concerns in the region," he added.

China and several Asian nations have rival claims to uninhabited islands in the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in hydrocarbons and straddles strategic shipping lanes vital to global trade.

Relations between Beijing and Manila have plunged recently with both sides pressing their conflicting claims to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

The two countries have had ships posted around the shoal since early April, when Chinese vessels prevented a Philippine Navy ship from arresting Chinese fishermen.

Panetta said before leaving the United States that his trip was aimed at remaining "vigilant" in the face of China's growing military.

He is is due to attend an annual Asia security summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore this week.

N. Korea's trade reliance on China deepens
Seoul (AFP) May 31, 2012 - North Korea's trade hit a record high by value last year but its reliance on China deepened because of isolation and international sanctions, a South Korean state body said Thursday.

The North's total trade in 2011 rose 51.3 percent from a year earlier to $6.32 billion, the highest since the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency began compiling such data in 1990.

Exports increased 84.2 percent to $2.79 billion while imports were up 32.6 percent to $3.53 billion, the agency said.

The cash-strapped communist country exported $1.17 billion worth of coal, up 193 percent, and $400 million worth of minerals, up 61.3 percent, it said.

Trade with China in 2011 jumped 62.4 percent year-on-year to $5.63 billion -- 89 percent of its total trade compared to 78.5 percent in 2009 and 83 percent in 2010, it said.

The impoverished country has allowed Chinese companies to explore its potentially vast mineral wealth, as its dependence on Beijing grows amid the nuclear stand-off with the United States and its allies.

Other nations North Korea trades with include Russia and India.

South Korea suspended most trade links in 2010, apart from products made at a joint industrial estate, after accusing the North of sinking one of its warships with the loss of 46 lives.

"North Korea has reduced its domestic supply of coal, iron ore and other natural resources to export them to China, in an effort to secure foreign currency for major political events," the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency said in a statement.

The North has staged a variety of events this year to celebrate the centenary of the birth of its late founding president Kim Il-Sung.