BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Sunday China is firmly opposed to the recent moves by the United States that undermined China's core interests and the overall interests of bilateral ties and called for joint efforts to promote a return to sound relations.

"The responsibility for the current difficulty in Sino-U.S. relations does not lie with China," Yang told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's supreme legislature.

He said that the China-U.S relationship had a good start after President Obama took office last year.

However, the U.S arms sales to Taiwan and U.S leaders' meetings with the ** Lama "caused a serious disturbance to China-U.S ties and posed difficulty to the cooperation between the two countries," he said.