President Hu Jintao and his United States counterpart Barack Obama discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula in a telephone call yesterday, according to state media.

While the Xinhua News Agency gave no details, AP reported that the move "comes amid efforts by the US to enlist Chinese support for a tough new UN Security Council resolution in response to" the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear test.

Pyongyang claims to have conducted a nuclear test on May 25 and test-fired a series of short-range missiles over the last week, in violation of UN sanctions. World powers have since huddled together to chalk out a decisive response to DPRK's moves. Any UN Security Council response will have to be endorsed by China and Russia. Both have expressed "the necessity of a convincing response from the Security Council" but believe that "resolving the problem is possible only on political-diplomatic tracks".