WASHINGTON, June 21 (Reuters) - The United States and China pledged on Thursday to continue talks on Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the U.S. State Department said following two days of talks by senior officials in Washington.

The U.S.-China Senior Dialogue led by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo agreed to lower-level talks "to enhance mutual understanding and better coordinate our efforts" to promote security and development in key regions, the department said in a statement.

The talks that ended Thursday, the fourth round since 2005, covered the North Korean nuclear issue, Iran's nuclear ambitions, Sudan's violent Darfur region as well as human rights, climate change, energy security, and fighting the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the statement said.

The small delegations led by Negroponte and Dai that met in Washington and nearby Maryland also discussed security in Northeast Asia, including matters of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the department said.

China made no immediate comment on the closed-door talks, which were started in an effort to manage relations across a range of issues and regions where the interests of the U.S. superpower and rising China sometimes converge and often clash.

Negroponte and Dai reviewed and decided to continue separate "sub-dialogues" between the two countries on Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and Northeast and Southeast Asia launched this year would continue to be held, the statement said.

The next senior talks would be held in China at the end of this year, it added

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