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"China is ready to consider exploring solutions to the South China Sea disputes with all relevant parties under reasonable conditions," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.
"But the most important immediate task is to advance practical cooperation with Southeast Asian countries to create an atmosphere in which to solve these disputes," state-run China Daily quoted him as saying.
His remarks followed the ongoing visit of Vietnamese Foreign Minister Binh Minh to Beijing during which he has held talks with Communist Party Politburo Member Zhou Yongkong, State Counsellor Dai Bingguo and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
Minh began a four-day visit to China on Sunday, his first since becoming the country's foreign minister in August. He will also go to the southwest province of Yunnan on Tuesday, which borders Vietnam.
Of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations members, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have claims to territories in the South China Sea. Taiwan, which China considers as its own territory, also staked its claim for the oil rich islands in the region. It is not known whether China has raised the issue of ONGC Videsh taking up oil drilling in the blocks claimed by Vietnam in South China Sea islands during the talks with the Vietnamese foreign minister.
China claims entire South China Sea belongs to it. Last year Beijing objected to India over the ONGC contract. New Delhi, however, brushed it off as saying it is purely a commercial deal.
Liu said China is open-minded and willing to actively promote the final conclusion of a "code of conduct of parties in the South China Sea" when the conditions are right. China insists on bilateral negotiations. "The pressing task for now is that all parties take opportunities to implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, and promote practical cooperation in the South China Sea to safeguard regional peace and stability," Liu said.
Hints of China willing to look at solutions came as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to succeed President Hu Jintao next year, began a five-day image-building visit to the US on Monday.
China is deeply concerned about US forging alliances with countries in the Asia Pacific region, including those that have stakes in the South China Sea dispute, besides India, Japan and Australia.
On regional cooperation, Xi said China and the US have more converging interests in the Asia-Pacific region than anywhere else.
"At a time when people long for peace, stability and development, to deliberately give prominence to the military security agenda, scale up military deployment and strengthen military alliances is not really what most countries in the region hope to see," Xi told Washington Post in an interview ahead of his visit, questioning recent US plans to expand its military presence in the Asia-Pacific. "The vast Pacific Ocean has ample space for China and the US," Xi said.
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