"China has decided to postpone its consultations with the US in the fields of proliferation prevention, arms control and international security," foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao announced here.

Zhu also said China has decided to suspend its dialogue with the US in the sphere of human rights, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The decision comes amid large-scale anti-NATO and anti-US protests in Beijing and other Chinese cities following Friday's `barbaric' bombings of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade that killed three persons and injured over 20.

High-level Sino-US military contacts had resumed only recently after the successful exchange of visits by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and US PresidentBill Clinton.

In Beijing, slogan-shouting students resumed their siege of the US and British embassies after weekend protests over NATO's bombing.

With the banners reading "down with the United States" and chanting "long live China", the demonstrators threw stones at the embassy.

The protests have been the biggest public demonstrations in China since the Tiananmen square's pro-democracy marches in 1989.

A spokesman for the US embassy said some staff were still inside the embassy and ambassador James Sasser was directing efforts at the premises.

A leading Chinese newspaper also warned the Americans against ignoring Chinese peoples' indignation at NATO's missile attack of the Chinese embassy.

Any attempt to intimidate the Chinese with force would prove futile, The Peoples Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party of China, said in an editorial.

Meanwhile, US assistant secretary of state for East-Asian affairs Stanley Roth today cancelled his trip to China, a US embassy spokesmansaid, while diplomatic sources said Beijing's latest reaction is likely to jeopardise the proposed visit of US secretary of defence William Cohen as well.

Clinton issues public apology

WASHINGTON: US President Bill Clinton publicly apologized today for NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade but insisted that the allied campaign against Yugoslavia would continue. ``I apologise, I regret this,'' Clinton said at the White House. But he added, ``I think it is very important to draw a clear distinction between a tragic mistake and a deliberate act of ethnic cleansing.'' Earlier today the White House confirmed that Clinton had sent a letter to Chinese President Jiang Zemin conveying regret.