WASHINGTON Ñ The United States increasingly suspects that North Korea serves as a front for the transfer of Chinese components and technology to the Middle East.

U.S. officials and congressional sources said China is believed to have transferred technology and components to Pyongyang. The transfers are used to fill orders by Middle East clients for missile systems.

The cooperation between Beijing and Pyongyang is believed to have resulted in missile shipments to such countries as Iran, Libya and Syria, Middle East Newsline reported.

The cooperation allows Beijing to deny any violation of a November pledge to the United States to end missile exports.

Several U.S. senators who returned from a meeting earlier this month from Beijing are demanding the imposition of sanctions on Chinese companies.

"I think what we should do identify those entities within the Chinese government that have transferred whatever technology meets the requirement of breaching the deal that they have made with us and sanction those companies from being able to do business," Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Joseph Biden said.

Sen. Fred Thompson, a Tennessee Republican and a member of the committee, agreed. Thompson said China has refused to acknowledge that it must end the transfer of missile components to Middle East clients.

"I think that we're going to have to take some action there because clearly do not believe they have to do anything differently. Just recently they were caught shipping additional missile components to Pakistan," Thompson said.

A U.S. interagency delegation will arrive in Beijing next week to pursue the issue of Chinese missile sales. The visit will begin on Aug. 23 and be led by acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Non Proliferation Vann Van Diepen.

"We can identify Iraq as a threat today and we can identify North Korea as a threat today," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said.

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