China has balked at joint discussions with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the dispute over the South China Sea, dismissing calls from ASEAN ministers and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to prioritize the issue at this week's ASEAN Regional Forum in Phnom Penh.

"This South China Sea issue is not an issue between China and ASEAN, but between China and some ASEAN countries," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Liu Weimin remarked at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. Liu added that the ASEAN forum was "not an appropriate venue for discussing the South China Sea".

ASEAN ministers earlier this week agreed on 'key elements' on a Code of Conduct (COC) agreement for the South China Sea, and have been looking to open discussions with China in the hopes of reaching a binding and enforceable regional agreement that adds some teeth to the decade-old Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea agreement signed between the bloc and China.

"The ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation Work Plan for 2007 to 2017 specifically states our collective goal of enhancing maritime cooperation on safety of navigation, such as through the implementation of relevant treaties and agreements," Filipino Secretary for Foreign Affairs Albert F. del Rosario said at a meeting on Tuesday between the foreign ministers of ASEAN states, China, Japan, and South Korea.

"If not now, when? I mean, this is what we are here for," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters in Phnom Penh on Sunday.

Chinese officials, however, have reiterated their position that disputes in the South China Sea should be resolved through direct negotiations between China and the countries involved - namely Vietnam and the Philippines.

"It is China's consistent position that disputes over the sovereignty of some islands and delimitation of some waters in the South China Sea should be peacefully settled by the parties directly concerned through negotiations, and that pending the settlement of the disputes, the parties concerned may put aside their differences and engage in joint development," Zhang Jianmin, spokesperson for the Chinese delegation to the ASEAN foreign minister meetings, told China's official Xinhua news agency in an interview on Tuesday.

The ASEAN forum comes at a particularly tense period between China and its southern neighbors over their rival claims to areas of the resource-rich South China Sea.

State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) announced on June 26 it was inviting foreign companies to help explore and develop nine blocks in the South China Sea near Vietnam's east coast. The blocks were subsequently discovered to overlap areas already secured by Gazprom, Exxon Mobil Corp. and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp., and the move from CNOOC drew a swift condemnation from Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Philippines, meanwhile, is preparing to move ahead with the auction of the three remaining blocks in the 4th Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR 4), two of which (Blocks 3 and 4) lie in waters claimed by China.

Twelve of the 15 blocks available through PECR 4 were opened for bidding in April, with eight blocks receiving 16 bids, but bidding for Blocks 3, 4, and 5, has been delayed until July 31.

"The local political atmosphere here is such that the government is more likely to push through [with the auction] in order to publicly demonstrate its resolve, rather than withdraw the areas from the offer and be seen as buckling to Chinese pressure," Jay Batongbacal, an expert on maritime law at the University of the Philippines, told Interfax this week.

"Definitely, CNOOC's move will cause people here to be much more wary of a similar move being attempted in Philippine areas. This is likely to further add fuel to the government's attempts to pull the U.S. into a more active role in the South China Sea, and complicates the situation" in the region even further, Batongbacal added.