By John Ruwitch

MANILA, Aug 1 (Reuters) - China's foreign minister was forced to defend the "made-in-China" label on Wednesday, as the safety of Chinese food dominated talks with western officials on the eve of Asia-Pacific's largest security summit.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte that Beijing did not want a string of recent health scares connected with its exports blown out of proportion.

"We also oppose politicising the issue of Chinese products, and oppose trade protectionism and trade discrimination," Yang was quoted as saying by a foreign ministry spokeswoman.

The United States stepped up inspections of imports from China after a chemical additive in pet food caused the death of pets there this spring.

Since then, poisonous ingredients have been found in Chinese exports of toys, toothpaste and fish, while the deaths of patients in Panama were blamed on improperly labelled Chinese chemicals that were mixed into cough syrup.

"China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the United States in quality testing, quarantine and inspection, and is also willing to promote with the United States the normal and smooth development of China-U.S. trade," Yang said.

A U.S. delegation is visiting China this week on a fact-finding mission on food and drug safety and barely a day goes past without a new scandal or problem with food or drugs coming to light in China.

Last month the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned imports of Chinese farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace and eel unless their suppliers could prove they were free of certain veterinary substances, which pose no immediate health risk but could be a problem in the long run.

NO RICE

China has gained greater prominence at Thursday's ASEAN Regional Forum due to the absence of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Climate change, counterterrorism and North Korea's nuclear programme are also high on the agenda at the gathering, which brings together the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) with ministers from elsewhere in Asia, the United States, Russia, Canada and the European Union.

But hopes of revving up progress on North Korea are muted in the absence of Rice, who is in the Middle East for talks on Iraq, and little beyond positive platitudes about recent progress has so far emerged from talks in the Philippines, which holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN.

Ahead of the summit, countries discussed terror threats as well as responses to disasters and the outbreak of diseases in the region.

"The conclusion we came to is this -- no country, no matter how powerful, can do it by itself. We can only do it collectively," said New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters. (Additional reporting by Manny Mogato and Teruaki Ueno)

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