China is credited with having more leverage over North Korea than any other country, but Pyongyang's decision to proceed with missile tests this month despite Beijing's protests illustrated how impervious the regime is.

On Thursday, North Korea again refused to rejoin nuclear talks, saying it would not do so until the United States drops financial sanctions, dimming China's hopes of reviving the stalled nuclear talks at a security meeting here.

China said it still would "absolutely not give up" its efforts to restart the six-party talks on the North's nuclear program but analysts said Beijing's drive appeared to be running out of steam with Pyongyang refusing to cooperate.

"The world cannot continue to live in a limbo of one step forward and three step backwards, yet how do we get out of this limbo?" said Zha Daojiong, political scientist at the People's University in Beijing.

"North Korea must do something to demonstrate that it is interested in a resolution but so far we're not seeing that... it is a challenge for all of us to find a way to approach North Korea," he said.

Brian Bridges, a North Korea expert from Lingnan University in Hong Kong, 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 six-nation talks with a proposal to hold an impromptu session in the Malaysian capital Friday.

But as of late Thursday, China said there was still no confirmation of a meeting between the foreign ministers of the six nations, which it earlier hoped would take place on the sidelines of the Asian Regional Forum here which both US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun are attending.

"There is no arrangement yet for such a meeting," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

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.

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.

US envoy Christopher Hill, who is also in Kuala Lumpur, said Thursday it had "zero" plans to meet one-on-one with North Korea until it re-enters the "diplomatic game" of six-nation talks.

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.

North Korea's issues may be included in an eight-country discussion on regional issues on Friday to be hosted by the United States, which will include China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Malaysia, Australia and Canada, Jiang said.

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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