The balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the US and Canada before the US military shot it down off the Atlantic Coast on Biden's orders.

It accuses the US of 'completely acting on its own and in a surreptitious manner'.

The talks come as Tokyo worries that Beijing will resort to force to take control of Taiwan in the wake of Russia's attack on Ukraine, sparking a conflict that could embroil Japan and disrupt global trade.

The highly anticipated meeting of the two senior officials came on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing.

While stressing that the US is 'not looking for a new Cold War', Biden says he makes 'no apologies for taking down that balloon'.

Taiwan has complained of increased harassment by Beijing's armed forces over the past three years, including fighter jets flying near the island and drones buzzing offshore islets.

The balloon drifted across Alaska's Aleutian Islands, then Canada and the central US before it was shot down by the US military off the coast of South Carolina on Feb 4.

The Chinese balloon, which Beijing denies was a spy vessel, spent a week flying over the US and Canada before President Joe Biden ordered it shot on Feb 4.

A meeting between Antony Blinken and Wang Yi is said to be possible at the Munich Security Conference, which runs from Feb 17 to 19.

The US government denies China's accusation that high-altitude balloons had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since the beginning of 2022.

This new device was not deemed to be a military threat to anything on the ground, but it could have posed a hazard to civil aviation, an official says.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he ordered the takedown of the object, the latest of a series of mysterious air intrusions.