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

The talks followed a week of increasingly sharp exchanges between the two powers after Obama repeatedly betrayed impatience with Beijing's economic record during his week-long tour of the Pacific.

Obama and Wen met on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, after the Chinese premier asked for more time to continue a conversation with the US leader that began at an official dinner last night.

US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said the talks focused mainly on economics, reflecting Wen's principal portfolio.

Obama discussed concerns about what Washington sees as the artificially low value of the yuan and trade disputes that he raised with China's President Hu Jintao in Hawaii last week, Donilon said.

He also mentioned South China Sea territorial disputes which the United States wants to discuss in general terms in the summit, but which China says should be confined to talks between the individual regional nations concerned.

"The president indicated that they would have further conversation about it in the context of the East Asia Summit leaders' retreat," Donilon said, adding that several Southeast Asian nations had raised maritime issues with Obama.

"The US position here is a principled position -- the United States is a Pacific power, it is a trading power, it is a maritime power.

"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."

Wen and Obama met on the same day that a commentary by China's official Xinhua news agency dripped with contempt for his attempt to show that the United States considers itself a Pacific power and will remain so.

"The US move has fuelled strong suspicions from the region. Many countries wonder what kind of 'leadership' America aspires to assume in the future," the commentary said.

"If the United States sticks to its Cold War mentality and continues to engage with Asian nations in a self-assertive way, it is doomed to incur repulsion in the region."  (AFP)

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