[font size="1"]John Minchillo/Associated Press - United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the Waldorf Astoria hotel Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012 in New York.[/font]

...A senior U.S. official said Clinton had pressed Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the importance of settling its conflicting claim with Japan over the Japanese-held Senkaku islands, called Diaoyu by China, along with numerous competing claims in the South China Sea with members of the Association of South East Asian Nations.

“We urged that cooler heads prevail, that Japan and China engage in dialogue to calm the waters,” the official said. “We believe that Japan and China have the resources, have the restraint, have the ability to work on this together and take tensions down.”

The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the private discussion between Clinton and Yang on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly and therefore requested anonymity. Clinton was expected to make the same case to Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba when she meets with him in New York.

However, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Wednesday that his nation was not willing to compromise in its territorial dispute with China over the Senkakus that have spawned violent anti-Japan protests in China...