WASHINGTON U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held a call with China's ambassador to the United States on Tuesday to follow up on issues discussed during U.S. top diplomat Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing last week, the State Department said.

In the call with Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng, Sherman reiterated the importance of maintaining open channels of communication across the full range of issues, the State Department said earlier in a statement.

"This was a substantive call. It was to follow up on the secretary's visit," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a regular news briefing.

Secretary of State Blinken held meetings with Chinese officials including President Xi Jinping, but did not reach an agreement on re-establishing high-level defense dialogue.

"There are a number of conversations that are happening at the sub-Cabinet level now about following up on some of the issues that the secretary discussed," Miller added.

U.S. and Chinese officials have had discussions since Blinken's visit about when a proposed visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang might occur, but the visit had not been scheduled yet, Miller said.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Ismail Shakil and Paul Grant; writing by Simon Lewis; Editing by Leslie Adler)