Washington insists that the drill is "defensive in nature" and was planned long in advance, but the show of strength is intended to send an unmistakable message to the volatile regime of Kim Jong-Il.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS George Washington and its battle group will be joined by a flotilla of South Korean destroyers and other warships.

The aircraft carrier left its port in Japan Wednesday, only a day after North Korea stunned the world by launching a barrage of shells and rockets at a South Korean border island, killing two marines and two civilians.

The exercises are due to be held in international waters off the Korean peninsula but Pyongyang, which has kept the region on edge for years with its nuclear and long-range missile tests, issued an ominous warning.

"If the US brings its carrier to the West Sea of Korea (Yellow Sea) at last, no one can predict the ensuing consequences," its official KCNA news agency said.

The planned drill has also heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing, which regards the Yellow Sea as its own ancestral waters and has refrained from condemning its communist ally Pyongyang over Tuesday's attack.

China has previously come out strongly against such exercises in its backyard, saying they risk exacerbating tensions, and its foreign ministry has said it opposes "any party to take any military actions in our exclusive economic zone without permission".

Washington has stressed that the manoeuvres are not aimed against China, which plays a key role as host of the stalled six-party talks seeking an end to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

China's state councillor Dai Bingguo, the country's top foreign policymaker, travelled to Seoul on Saturday and held talks on the situation with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, Beijing's official news agency Xinhua reported.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also held phone talks on Saturday with his Japanese and Russian counterparts.

The attack on Yeonpyeong island was the first shelling of civilians since the 1950-53 Korean war and has plunged the peninsula into its worst crisis in decades.

The KCNA report making the threat also labelled the United States "the arch-criminal who orchestrated the recent military clash".

The North claims it acted in retaliation Tuesday to a South Korean firing drill in what it regards as its own waters, and said two civilian deaths were "if true... very regrettable", but also charged they had been used as "human shields" by being placed near artillery positions.

Pyongyang has warned that the new war games mean the peninsula "is inching closer to the brink of war". It regularly engages in such aggressive rhetoric without following through with action, but remains deeply unpredictable.

In a security meeting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak warned that "there is a possibility that North Korea might commit wayward acts during the exercise," said a spokesman at the presidential Blue House.

Lee has come under pressure to take a tougher line against the North in the wake of the shelling and Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed South Korean military source as saying: "The intensity of the exercise will be greater than had been planned.

"Participating forces will carry out firing and bombing drills."

The 97,000-ton George Washington, which is escorted by nine surface combatant ships, can carry about 75 aircraft on its 1.8 hectare (4.5 acre) flight deck and has a crew of 5,500 service personnel.

Also taking part in the drill will be an embarked carrier air wing and vessels the USS Cowpens, Lassen, Stethem and Fitzgerald.

South Korea will deploy destroyers, patrol vessels, frigates, support ships and anti-submarine aircraft, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said without giving details of the numbers of ships or personnel, the Korea Times reported.

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