BEIJING — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that the debate with China over human rights, Taiwan and Tibet cannot be allowed to interfere with attempts to reach consensus on other broader issues.

Shortly before arriving in Beijing on the last leg of her inaugural trip abroad as America's top diplomat, Clinton told reporters accompanying her that she would raise those contentious issues, but noted neither side is likely to give ground on them.

Instead, she said it might be better to agree to disagree on long-standing positions and focus instead on U.S.-Chinese engagement on climate change, the global financial crisis and security threats.

Her comments likely will disappoint human rights advocates who were hoping for a repeat of the stance she took nearly 15 years ago when she was first lady and publicly took on and angered the Chinese government in a tough speech on this issue.

But in surprisingly candid remarks, she said each side already knows the other's long-standing divergent positions on those matters and progress might be more achievable by concentrating on other areas where Washington and Beijing can work together.

"There is a certain logic to that," Clinton said in Seoul, South Korea immediately before leaving for Beijing.

"We know we're going to press them to reconsider their position about Tibetan religious and cultural freedom and autonomy for the Tibetans and some kind of recognition or acknowledgment of the Dalai Lama and we know what they're gonna say," Clinton said.

Clinton stressed she has never shied away from bringing up human rights issues with China, recalling her 1995 speech to the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing that so angered authorities that they pulled the plug on live television coverage of it.

Clinton will be in Beijing for two days of meetings with senior Chinese officials with a focus on climate change, the financial crisis and efforts to bring North Korea back to disarmament talks. She said that she wanted to find a way to best achieve results with the Chinese.