"Right now they are going to escort these types of ships for the foreseeable future," the defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The US government has said Chinese boats moved directly in front of the US Navy surveillance vessel Impeccable on Sunday, forcing the ship to take emergency action to avoid a collision.

A day after the incident, the USS Chung-Hoon destroyer accompanied the Impeccable, an unarmed ship designed to track submarines, in the same area, the official said.

Since Sunday's high-seas standoff, there have been no incidents of harassment from Chinese boats or aircraft, he said.

"It's been quiet," the official said. "There's a great deal of emphasis right now to keep this at the diplomatic level. So that's been our focus."

The escorts by warships applied to operations in the South China Sea, he said.

The US government has protested to Chinese authorities over the incident, which occurred in the South China Sea, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Hainan Island.

Obama calls for measures to stop China Sea clashes
US President Barack Obama on Thursday called for more military contacts with Beijing to head off future maritime standoffs in the South China Sea, as he met Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

Obama also raised hopes of progress in talks between China and the Dalai Lama's representatives over Tibet, as the two men also agreed to work together to combat the global economic meltdown in the White House meeting.

The president dispensed with protocol to meet Yang, following a series of sharp exchanges over China's human rights record in Tibet, and the recent standoff between a US naval ship and Chinese vessels.

Obama, making his first foray into treacherous Sino-US ties, told Yang that he believed it was important to raise the level and frequency of the military dialogue between the sides to "avoid future incidents," the White House said.

His national security advisor James Jones meanwhile directly raised the incident this week involving the US survey ship Impeccable.

Obama meanwhile raised the issue of Tibet, a day after the official Xinhua news agency said that Yang told the United States to stop meddling in China's internal affairs over the issue.

"On human rights, the president noted that the promotion of human rights is an essential aspect of US global foreign policy," the White House statement said.

"The president expressed his hope there would be progress in the dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama's representatives."

Obama and Yang agreed that China and the United States must work "closely and urgently" to stabilize the global economy.

The two sides need to stimulate "demand at home and abroad, and get credit markets flowing," the White House said.

"The President also emphasized the need to address global trade imbalances."

The meeting came against a backdrop of the deepening global economic crisis, with much of the world looking for the powerhouse economies of China and the United States to chart a road to recovery.

It was set to prepare the ground for the first meeting between Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the G-20 summit of developed and developing nations in London in early April.

Yang earlier told members of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that the Obama-Hu meeting would be a "great success" and both sides viewed it with high importance, China's official Xinhua news agency said.

But in recent days, the high-profile standoff between a US naval ship and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea and US expressions of concern over human rights in Tibet have detracted attention from economic common interests.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after meeting Yang on Wednesday that the two sides agreed to work to avoid a repeat of a standoff on Sunday in the South China Sea.

But China is fuming over a resolution that passed the House of Representatives calling on Beijing to "cease its repression of the Tibetan people, and to lift immediately the harsh policies imposed on Tibetans."

The resolution followed a Chinese security crackdown in the Himalayan region during the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising that forced Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile.

The White House and State Department have expressed concern about the human rights situation in recent days, prompting strongly-worded complaints from Beijing.

China's Xinhua news agency said in a report after Yang's meeting with Clinton that he had told the United States to "stop meddling" in Beijing's internal affairs over Tibet.

The agency said Yang registered "strong indignation" over the House resolution and called for effective steps to clear up "wrong words and deeds" from the US side.

Xinhua also said that the two sides promised to work together to avoid trade disputes and to fight protectionism and the financial crisis at what Yang described as a "new starting point" for relations.

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