THE White House has warned of the rising risk of accidental war in the South China Sea and called for countries in the region urgently to agree to a code of conduct.

China resists such a code as it jostles for ownership of resource-rich seabeds claimed by six south-east Asian nations. But the top Asia policy official in the White House has said a recent two-month maritime standoff between China and the Philippines ''threatened to escalate'' and created ''a scenario of grave concern to all countries in the region''. The standoff ended only when a hurricane sent the Philippine vessels back to port.

''The US is a resident Pacific power'' ... Hillary Clinton. Credit:AP

Analysts say the South China Sea is the new flashpoint of Asia. Most world shipping - and Australian exports - pass through it. ''A code of conduct, in our view, is a matter of commonsense,'' the National Security Council's senior director for Asia, Danny Russell, said. In a call implicitly aimed at China, Mr Russell said 10 years ago China had agreed to negotiate such a code of conduct. It has repeatedly said it will agree to discussions ''when the time is ripe''. A Pentagon official with responsibility for US defence policy in Asia, Vikram Singh, said: ''The time is ripe now''.

China has said the US is meddling in the region's affairs by encouraging a code of conduct. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, responded: ''The US is a resident Pacific power''.