Iran's chief nuclear negotiator ended a visit to Beijing with both countries calling for continued international negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program despite growing pressure on Beijing to back new sanctions against Tehran.

"We agreed, sanctions as a tool have already lost their effectiveness," Saeed Jalili told reporters in Beijing Friday after two days of meetings with Chinese officials. He declined to say whether his Chinese counterparts had offered Iran any commitment to continue opposing U.S.-led efforts to impose sanctions on Iran .

Jalili's comments came hours after Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama held a one-hour phone conversation in which Obama raised Iran , which has become one of the central issues in U.S.-China relations. "President Obama underscored the importance of working together to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations," the White House said in a statement about the call.

Official Chinese accounts of the conversation didn't mention Iran directly. The state-run Xinhua news agency cited Hu, who China announced Thursday will attend a nuclear security summit in the U.S. later this month, as saying that China "attaches great importance to the issue of nuclear security, opposing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism, and supporting the international efforts to enhance cooperation on nuclear security."

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)

Western diplomats involved in the negotiations over Iran 's nuclear program have said that China in recent days agreed to start discussing a possible sanctions resolution with the other four permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany . But publicly Chinese officials have stuck to their position that continued diplomacy is the way to resolve the Iran issue.

Analysts weren't expecting any immediate breakthrough from Jalili's visit, which started Thursday. Jalili met with China's top foreign policy officials, including State Councilor Dai Bingguo, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, and Wang Jiarui, the head of the ruling Communist Party's international department.

Wang reiterated that China supports solving the Iran nuclear issue "through dialogue and negotiation," according to Xinhua. Earlier, Yang was quoted saying that Beijing "urges relevant parties to step up diplomatic efforts, and show flexibility, to create the conditions to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiation."

Iran is eager to secure backing from China --a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council--against the U.S.-led sanctions push. The U.S. and others accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian program, which Iran strongly denies. In recent weeks, Israel , the U.S. and Britain have sent envoys to sway Beijing to push for sanctions.

Analysts say part of China 's reluctance to back sanctions stems from deep economic ties to Iran , one of its top oil suppliers. But China has also been building up an energy footprint in neighboring Iraq .

The phone call between Hu and Obama was seen as a sign that Beijing and Washington are seeking to move past months of tensions over a range of disagreements, including how to handle Iran .

Although Hu raise continued sticking points in the relationship, including Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan , the two men sought common ground on working to improve the global economy and prevent the nuclear proliferation, official accounts said.

The White House said Obama "emphasized the importance of the United States and China along with other major economies implementing the G20 commitments designed to produce balanced and sustainable growth."

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