Deputy assistant secretary of defense for Prisoners of War (POW)/Missing Personnel Affairs Jerry D. Jennings held talks with Chinese officials last week to seek ways to locate missing and lost US soldiers, the embassy said in a statement.

"Both sides suggested ways to enhance cooperation on Korean War cases and acknowledged that we have limited time to achieve this goal," Jennings was quoted as saying.

"Toward this end, both sides agreed to increase the frequency of contacts."

Chinese armies, aiding their North Korean allies, fought brutally against US forces organized under the auspicies of the United Nations in the bloody 1950-1953 war that left more than 33,000 US soldiers dead.

The hostilities ended with a 1953 armistice, but did not formally end the war with a peace treaty.

In talks with China's foreign and defense ministry officials, the US official also sought information from the Dandong Museum in northeastern Liaoning province, relating to two F-86 pilots who have been missing in action from the Korean War.

The US is also seeking aid in finding missing US soldiers from World War II and the Vietnam War, while trying to contact Chinese Korean War veterans to build upon information on Chinese-run POW camps during the war, the statement said.

Meanwhile, preparations in China to honor its Korean War dead were beginning to take shape ahead of the April 5 Qing Ming festival, when China traditionally remembers its dead.

Web portal Sina.com and the Liaoshen Evening News, Saturday set up a special website where friends and relatives of those killed in the war could post stories and anecdotes about their loved ones.

The site is to "commemorate the 50th anniversary of victory in the war to fight the United States and aid North Korea", Sina.com said.

WAR.WIRE