Visiting U.S. Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice said Thursday in Canberra that her country had no policy of containment against China and was striving to engineer a greater role for China in the international community.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, one of Australia 's leading newspapers, Thursday, Rice emphatically denied that the United States was pursuing a policy of containment against China.

"I come from the Cold War period," Rice told the paper.

"Containment has a special meaning. We never used it in this context ... I think it's just a phrase I wouldn't apply," she said.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer warned earlier this week against using containment as a strategy for dealing with China.

The term was used in a media interview earlier this week, and Downer again volunteered the controversial phrase at a joint press conference with Rice on Thursday.

"From our point of view we've never had a concern that the U.S. was pursuing a policy of containment of China or something like that," Downer said.

"Our relationship has its own dynamic, we have our own issues. We have a very good and constructive relationship with China," he said.

Rice also said the United States had "excellent" relations with Beijing and had tried to engineer China's integration into regional and global institutions.

However, Rice restated that the United States had concerns about China's human rights, religious freedom and military build- up.

Rice is scheduled to hold the inaugural ministerial security dialogue Saturday with Downer and her Japanese counterpart Taro Aso, which is expected to focus on the rise of China.

Source: Xinhua