Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to touch on North Korea's nuclear program and tensions on the Korean Peninsula when he meets U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington next week, a senior Beijing official said Thursday.

Xi will visit Washington to attend the summit, set for March 31 to April 1. North Korea's defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons is likely to become one of the key topics of discussion during the summit.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong told reporters that Xi and Obama "will have a full exchange of views" on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula issue.

Li repeated China's stance that sanctions alone will not push North Korea to give up its nuclear program and only dialogue can lead to the denuclearization of North Korea.

Next week's summit in Washington is mainly aimed at discussing ways to reduce the stockpile of highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, to keep it out of the hands of terrorists and to ensure atomic safety.

North Korea has been slapped with tougher U.N. sanctions for carrying out its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and a long-range rocket launch on Feb. 7.

Since the latest U.N. sanctions were adopted, North Korea has threatened to conduct more nuclear tests, and claimed advances in its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.

According to the North's state media on Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised a successful test of a solid-fuel rocket engine. If true, it would significantly enhance the effectiveness of the countries long-range ballistic missile force. (Yonhap)