China is keen to cooperate with the United States in the Asian region, assistant foreign minister Liu Zhenmin said Saturday in positive comments after a week of wrangles.

"We are looking forward to cooperating with the US in the region and at the EAS," Liu told reporters on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, when asked about Washington's new focus on Asia, which has irked Beijing in recent days.

Earlier Saturday, US President Barack Obama prodded China's Premier Wen Jiabao on maritime territorial rows and economic wrangles amid signs of Chinese scorn for his Pacific diplomacy push.

Among other issues, Obama mentioned the South China Sea territorial disputes at the two-way talks, US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said.

The United States wanted to discuss the disputes in general terms in the summit, but China says the issue should be confined to talks between the individual regional nations concerned.

"The United States has an interest in the freedom of navigation, the free flow of commerce, a peaceful resolution of disputes (but) we don't have a claim, we don't take sides in the claims," Donilon said.

Liu defended Beijing's position. "China has continued to allow that freedom of navigation in the region," he said, adding that his country was willing to start discussing with ASEAN countries a legally binding code of conduct for the area.

China claims all of the South China Sea, as does Taiwan, while four Southeast Asian countries declare ownership of parts of it, with Vietnam and the Philippines accusing Chinese forces of increasing aggression there.

The region is a conduit for more than one-third of the world's seaborne trade and half its traffic in oil and gas, and major petroleum deposits are believed to lie below the seabed.