US shutdown vexes China, Japan

[TOKYO] China and Japan, the United States' biggest creditors, are increasingly worried that the US government shutdown and standoff over the debt ceiling could wreak havoc on their trillions of dollars of investments in US Treasury bonds.

Beijing and Tokyo have publicly called on the White House and Congress to resolve the dispute, which could threaten a US debt default as soon as next week, and Asia's two biggest economies are urging Washington to find a solution.

Japanese officials held several emergency telephone conferences with US Treasury Department officials on Monday, Japan's Nikkei newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.