China will hold consultations with the United States over complaints about intellectual property rights next month and start a high-level economic dialogue with Japan this year, according to a senior trade official.

China and the United States will hold talks from June 5 to 8 in Geneva to discuss the complaints Washington filed at the World Trade Organization earlier last month, Ministry of Commerce spokesman Wang Xinpei yesterday told a press conference in Beijing.

The Unite States filed formal complaints over copyright piracy and restrictions on the sale of US movies, music and books in China, saying that billions of dollars are lost annually from piracy levels that "remain unacceptably high".

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Some other countries such as Japan, Canada and Mexico and the European Union have reportedly asked to become third parties to the talks.

The consultations will follow next week's second round of the Sino-US strategic economic dialogue, in which IPR issues are likely to be discussed.

Wang expects the latest round of the dialogue - to be held in Washington on May 22 and 23 - to yield positive results.

"The two sides are in close touch with each other. We hope the US will collaborate with China to ensure a positive outcome and push the Sino-US relationship forward," he said.

The two sides will also touch on issues such as market access, China's service industry and trade balance.

Also, China and Japan will kick off the first round of a high-profile Sino-Japanese economic dialogue in Beijing this year, Wang said.

The new mechanism is targeted at improving exchanges in development strategies and macro economic policies, cross-department economic cooperation and strengthening communication over major issues.

The mechanism is expected to play a role for cooperation in some key sectors such as energy, the environment, finance, high-technology communication and intellectual property rights protection, Wang said.

(China Daily 05/17/2007 page1)