PHNOM PENH  - ASEAN leaders struggled Thursday to hammer out a final communiqué at a gathering in Cambodia due to splits in their views on the South China Sea, officials said, admitting that tempers had flared.“Most of the ASEANs acknowledge that the institution is under enormous pressure and stress right now to maintain unity as it confronts very serious challenges, primarily associated with the South China Sea,” a US official said.The 10-member Southeast Asian bloc was trying to draw up a final joint statement, but it has floundered on the thorny issue of whether to include references to recent disputes in the waters, diplomats said.“I think it’s utterly irresponsible if we cannot come up with a common statement on the South China Sea,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters.China claims essentially all of the South China Sea, while Taiwan and ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia also have claims in the waters, causing regular diplomatic flare-ups.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on all sides to resolve the disputes “without coercion, without intimidation, without threats and certainly without the use of force”.“We look to ASEAN and China to make meaningful progress towards finalising a code of conduct for the South China Sea that is based on international law and agreement,” she said.After the meeting in Cambodia, Hillary Clinton and her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi pledged to work more closely together after talks designed to soothe their countries’ often spiky relations. Clinton sought to highlight areas of common interest such as disaster relief and disease control, which she said were “an important signal that the US and China not only can, but will work together in Asia.” Yang said “China and US relations have continued to make progress this year”, adding both sides had agreed to “enhance our dialogue... to continue to expand our common ground”.The display of togetherness on the sidelines of a regional Asian security meeting came despite constant friction in the world’s most significant bilateral relationship, which is linked to China’s economic and military rise.There have been concerns the US’s new foreign policy “pivot” to focus on Asia, where it hopes to counter China’s enormous clout, could antagonise Beijing ahead of a leadership transition later this year.Clinton had been expected in Cambodia in conciliatory mood. At the same Asian summit in 2010, she had angered China by saying the US had a “national interest” in the disputed South China Sea.A second diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: The pressure from the big country is very intense,” referring to China. “It appears that Cambodia has strict marching orders from the big country.”

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