"The Chinese undoubtedly lost face when the North Koreans went ahead and fired missiles," said Brian Bridges, a North Korea expert from Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

Bridges said China probably intended to exert a certain amount of pressure in order to get North Korea to come back to the table, but not so much that it threatened to destabilise the impoverished country.

"China is probably increasingly frustrated and annoyed by North Korea, but when it comes down to the bottom line, do they want North Korea to collapse, I think the answer is no," he said.

"I think China's leverage is relatively limited. It may be more leverage than anybody else but comparatively limited."

Undaunted, China has this week mounted a high-profile campaign to breathe new life into the stalled six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program, with a proposal to hold an impromptu session in the Malaysian capital Friday.

The talks, also being promoted by South Korea, would take place on the sidelines of Asia's top security forum, which both US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun are attending.

But North Korea raised the stakes this week when it described Rice as a "political imbecile" for criticising its July 5 missile launches, hitting back at her comments that it was a "completely irresponsible" and "dangerous" state.

China said Wednesday it was "seriously concerned" about the increasingly complex situation in North Korea, after the missiles triggered a war of words with the international community.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who has been leading the campaign to engage with North Korea here, has voiced optimism over its chances of bringing Paek to the meeting table.

"We are hoping, we are keeping our fingers crossed, that with good conditions, we can have the six-party talks resume," Li said Wednesday.

But Rice told reporters en route to Kuala Lumpur that she did not anticipate any resumption here of the six-way talks, which North Korea has boycotted since November in protest over US financial sanctions.

The Asian powers and the United States have been considering other ways to tackle the issue, although they have disagreed about going ahead without North Korea, with both China and South Korea opposing such a move.

US envoy Christopher Hill, who is also in Kuala Lumpur, suggested that the talks could be broadened to include other countries, following a South Korean suggestion for a multilateral session including Malaysia, Australia and Canada.

Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS, a think-tank based in Hawaii, said China's decision to sign up to a Japan-sponsored Security Council resolution on North Korea indicated its patience was wearing thin.

"China and South Korea have demonstrated that they don't have as much leverage, they now have to prove their credibility," he said.

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