US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta encouraged China and Japan to seek a peaceful way to resolve the escalating Diaoyu Islands disputes during his talks Tuesday with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie, but Chinese analysts describe the US as partial to the Japanese side.

Panetta said the US government hoped China and Japan could find a peaceful diplomatic means to resolve the Diaoyu Islands disputes, adding that he was concerned about mounting anti-Japanese protests in China, Xinhua reported.

"We reserve the right to take further actions, although we hope to settle the issue through peaceful negotiation," Liang was quoted as saying by Xinhua to reporters after his talks with Panetta Tuesday.

However, prior to his visit to Beijing, Panetta said in Japan Monday that the US would stand by its treaty to defend Japan against attack.

The US has become a great obstacle to resolving the Diaoyu Islands disputes after it included the islets into the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, Shi Yinhong, a professor at the School of International Studies with the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.

Shen Dingli, an expert on American studies at the Shanghai-based Fudan University, called the "self-contradictory" stance of the US a "rogue foreign policy," used to contain the power of both China and Japan so as to maximize the interests of the US.

However, Japan is an important ally of the US, and China has now become an important partner of the US's development. If military clashes really occur in these two countries, the US government would face a big problem, he said.

Shi said there seemed little the US could do as a "mediator" between China and Japan, considering Chinese people's mounting anti-Japanese sentiment and Japan's coming elections, in which many Japanese politicians used the Diaoyu Islands for leverage.

Widespread anti-Japanese protests have erupted during the past days in many Chinese cities, after the Japanese central government announced it would "purchase" the Diaoyu Islands in a bid to frustrate similar efforts to "purchase" the islands by right-wing Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara.

"If the US truly takes no side in the confrontation, it should make concrete moves to persuade Japan from taking further provocative actions," Xinhua said in an editorial.

The two defense chiefs exchanged views on issues such as US weapons sales to Taiwan, the US rebalancing policy in Asia, and the South China Sea, according to Xinhua.

Panetta will meet with China's Vice President Xi Jinping Wednesday. He also invited China to join the 2014 Rim of the Pacific Exercise in 2014, saying the US encourages China to communicate with Asia-Pacific countries, Xinhua reported.