About a hundred Chinese nationals reported to be caught in the crossfire between government forces and rebels in northern Myanmar have been taken into the Myanmar government's custody, a spokesman of the Chinese embassy in Yangon announced on Tuesday.

The embassy told Reuters that Chinese diplomats are expected to meet with more than a hundred Chinese citizens detained in Myitkyina, the state capital of Kachin.

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On Monday, China's state-funded news outlet Global Times reported that dozens of Chinese citizens were among 2,000 people seeking refuge from the fighting in Kachin, which borders southern China. The Myanmar armed forces have long been at war with the rebel Kachin Independence Army in the state.

The Kachin government said the arrested Chinese illegally crossed the border into Myanmar, but the arrested workers denied the charge. Those included merchants, jade traders and miners. The embassy said it was working for their release.

On Tuesday, the foreign ministry in Beijing denied that hundreds of Chinese were caught in the fighting.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said an investigation by diplomats in Myanmar showed there was no truth to reports there were many Chinese trapped in the crossfire zone.

Hua said Beijing is open to playing peace-broker in northern Myanmar and urged warring parties to work on stability and lasting peace.

China is concerned that the skirmishes in the heavily militarized border may spill into nearby regions, where Beijing built two gas and oil pipelines to boost fuel and power supplies.

Besides energy, much of the mined jade in Myanmar is slipped past the border into China. The biggest source of jade in the country is an open-pit mine in Hpakant in Kachin.

Peace talks between rebel groups and Myanmar's reconstituted government wrapped up in September without any deals signed. The government took the country's reins four years ago, after nearly half a century of military rule.

The Kachin Independence Army, the second-biggest of nearly two dozen ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, began waging an armed struggle in 1961.