Obama to Meet With Chinese Foreign Minister Amid Sea Tensions

President Obama is expected to meet with the Chinese Foreign Minister over a confrontation between American and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea, the White House said Wednesday.

The announcement came just after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Wednesday with her Chinese counterpart to ease tensions over a confrontation that occurred Sunday when Chinese vessels reportedly harassed a U.S. Navy mapping ship in international waters.

While neither side yielded in their conflicting version of events, Clinton said she and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi agreed that similar episodes should be avoided in the future.

Clinton said the two sides agreed to work "to ensure that such incidents do not happen again."

The confrontation occurred Sunday in the South China Sea between a U.S. Navy mapping ship and several Chinese vessels.

Clinton told reporters that Yang's visit to the State Department was a "very positive" development, and she looked forward to continuing discussions she had with Yang during her well-received trip to Beijing last month.

Yang said, "We are here to get prepared for our two heads of state meeting in London and to work together to push our relationship forward," referring to a crucial early April meeting in London between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Beijing has long complained about U.S. surveillance operations around China's borders. Without better communications between the two militaries as they operate in the South China Sea, the possibility for future conflict will remain.

Clinton and Yang "can have a productive exchange to keep this bounded, but the real bureaucracies that need to be there aren't going to be at the meeting," said Jonathan Pollack, professor of Asian studies at the U.S. Naval War College.

He suggested that without stronger military-to-military links, the potential for "something ugly" happening "should not be minimized."

On Wednesday, China's Foreign Ministry in Beijing reiterated that the U.S. claims are "gravely in contravention of the facts and unacceptable to China." Beijing says the U.S. ship was operating illegally in China's exclusive economic zone.

U.S. defense officials said Tuesday that the Navy ship was looking for threats such as submarines, presumably Chinese. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the ship's exact capabilities are sensitive information. Other U.S. officials have said publicly that the United States will continue to patrol in the South China Sea despite Chinese objections.

U.S. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told lawmakers Tuesday that the incident was the most serious episode between the two nations since 2001, when China forced the landing of a U.S. spy plane and seized the crew.

Yang also was scheduled to meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and with White House officials, the State Department said.

The rising tension comes as the Obama administration tries to get Chinese help on a host of foreign policy matters, including efforts to confront Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.