Beijing - US President Barack Obama held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday after saying he wanted to create "open dialogue" between the two nations. Following the meeting, Hu said they had "candid, constructive and fruitful" talks and reached agreement in "many important fields," while Obama said he had an "excellent visit" on his first China trip.
Obama said China and the United States had "a great many mutual interests" and should expand cooperation on economic, security and other global issues.
Hu gave Obama a state welcome at Beijing's Great Hall of the People before their formal talks.
Obama is promoting his administration's new concept of "strategic reassurance" with China, which has designated his three-day visit as the first state visit by a US president for 12 years.
He said he wanted more personnel exchanges between the two nations.
"The more that we can encourage people-to-people exchanges that are consistent with the discussions that we are having at the government level," Obama said, "the more China and the United States will be able to work cooperatively on a whole range of issues - both economic issues, security issues and global issues - that are in the interests not just of our two nations, but the entire world."
Trade, finance, military transparency, Taiwan, Tibet, Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan were among the issues Hu and Obama were expected to discuss.
Obama was expected to ask China again to allow more appreciation of its renminbi currency, which some Western politicians have accused China of deliberately undervaluing to make its exports cheaper.
Chinese analysts said Hu might also raise China's concerns over the alleged US trade protectionism, its continuing refusal to recognise China as a full market economy, and its controls over high-technology exports.
On Saturday in Tokyo, Obama praised China for promoting security and stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as its role in attempting to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
At a meeting with Chinese students in Shanghai on Monday, he called for "open dialogue" with China and pointed to close cooperation in trade, energy, climate change, regional security, arms control and science.
"Today we have a positive, constructive and comprehensive relationship that opens the door to partnership on the key global issues of our time," he said.
In other comments in Shanghai, Obama promoted "universal rights" that were "common to all people, regardless of culture."
But he did not refer directly to China's record on human rights and democracy, amid reports that Chinese police detained dozens of prominent activists before his arrival.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Energy Secretary Steven Chu are among the US officials travelling with Obama.
