BEIJING (AP) – A senior American Treasury Department official and Chinese officials tried Monday to untangle a dispute over frozen North Korean funds that led to a breakdown in talks over the country’s nuclear program.

Daniel Glaser, deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, met Chinese foreign ministry and banking officials to discuss the money held at Banco Delta Asia, a lender in the Chinese territory of Macau, America said.

North Korea walked out of six-nation disarmament talks last week because of a hold-up in the release of the $25 million. The talks were aimed at fine-tuning a Feb. 13 agreement under which North Korea would dismantle its nuclear programs in exchange for energy aid and political concessions.

Mr. Glaser’s meeting was “positive and cordial,” with officials focused on “solutions to the implementation matters and our common interest in addressing this issue as quickly as possible,” Mr. Glaser’s spokeswoman, Molly Millerwise, said in an e-mail.

America agreed to let the money be transferred to a North Korean account at the Bank of China in Beijing, but the release was delayed by the Chinese bank’s concerns about accepting money that had been linked to counterfeiting and money laundering.

Mr. Glaser said in a statement before he left Washington that “the policy and diplomatic issues have been solved – this is now down to implementation.”

Authorities in Macau and China “have made clear that they want to ensure implementation of the agreement is consistent with their own laws and with their international obligations,” Glaser said.

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing spoke with American Secretary of State Rice by telephone on Sunday to discuss bilateral relations “and progress of the six-party talks,” a statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry Web site said, without giving additional details.

North Korea refused to attend the talks. No new date was given, but American envoy Christopher Hill, said it was “quite possible” the talks could start again within a week or two once the financial issue had been cleared up.

America first took action against Banco Delta Asia in 2005, putting it on a money-laundering blacklist for what the department determined were lax controls. As a result, Macau regulators froze North Korean assets held by the bank. BDA has denied any wrongdoing.

The freezing of the assets so angered North Korea that it refused to participate in six-nation nuclear arms talks for more than a year. The country returned to the talks in December, and the mid-February deal was struck in part because of an agreement to resolve the funds dispute within 30 days.

Among those at Monday’s negotiations was Jim Wilkinson, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s top administrative aide and a longtime Republican political operative in Washington. His participation is intended to assure Chinese banking authorities that Washington will not punish them for handling the North Korean assets, and to send a signal to all sides that the American government is united in seeking a deal.

The Treasury and State departments have sometimes been at odds as they pursued separate goals with regard to North Korea. The Treasury inquiry into Banco Delta Asia preceded a landmark 2005 nuclear disarmament deal reached by State Department negotiators, and Treasury officials have viewed their concern over financial issues as a separate law enforcement matter.

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Associated Press Writer Anne Gearan in Jerusalem contributed to this report.