The United States and China agreed on Thursday to keep talking about their spat over Google, following "a very open and candid conversation" on the sidelines of an international conference on Afghanistan.

Speaking to reporters, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she raised "the issue of Google" and its threat to quit China over cyberattacks and censorship with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in London.

"It was a very open and candid conversation," Clinton said, adding: "We agreed we would continue this conversation in the context of our ongoing dialogue."

"We had a very positive exchange," she continued, stressing however that it was still US policy to ensure "that no-one uses the Internet for purposes of censorship or repression."

A US official travelling with the Secretary of State added that Clinton wanted to be "forward-looking in terms of cybersecurity.

"This doesn't only affect American or European companies. It's going to affect Chinese companies as they become more integrated in the international cyber community."

China and the US had a "common interest... and we very much want to work with the Chinese," the official added.

The upbeat remarks echoed a statement from Beijing earlier in the day, in which China stressed it wanted to keep up cooperation with the United States despite bilateral tensions over Google, US arms sales to Taiwan and trade.

"China is willing to cooperate with the US in a wide range of bilateral areas," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters, in response to a question about US President Barack Obama's debut State of the Union address.

In his speech Wednesday, Obama expressed fears that other nations -- including China -- would outpace the United States unless it took action on its economy.

"Both China and the US are responsible countries in the world," Ma said, adding: "Cooperation between the two is in the fundamental interest of both countries, and good for world peace, stability and prosperity."

The relatively positive comments came after high tensions over Google's threat to leave China due to cyberattacks and censorship, which led to the United States questioning Beijing's vast system of web censorship.

Just last week, Ma described Clinton's comments on Internet freedom as "harmful to China-US relations."