WASHINGTON: China and the United States yesterday signed a slew of agreements at the conclusion of two days of high-level economic talks, which Vice-Premier Wu Yi described as "a complete success".

"We have reached broad consensus and realized positive results," Wu, who led the Chinese delegation to the China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), told reporters.

The two countries agreed on a wide variety of next steps to be taken in such areas as financial services, energy and the environment, trade balance, civil aviation and innovation.

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As part of the opening up of the financial sector, the quota for qualified foreign institutional investors will be tripled from $10 billion to $30 billion.

On the aviation front, daily passenger flights between the United States and China will more than double by 2012; and air cargo companies will have virtually unlimited access to China. "Piece by piece, we are making it easier, cheaper, and more convenient to fly people and ship goods between our two countries," US Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said.

Under the pact, US carriers will be able to operate 23 daily round trip flights by 2012, up from 10 now.

Wu said that Sino-US trade relations are among the most complex and call for creativity and consultations to solve problems that may arise.

She said the talks should serve a constructive purpose and keep the countries from reverting to the "easy resort to threat and sanctions".

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told the briefing: "While we have much more work to do, we have tangible results for our efforts thus far.

"These results are like signposts on the long-term strategic road, building confidence and encouraging us to continue moving forward together."

He added: "We agree that strengthening and developing our trade relations will create jobs and give our citizens a wider variety of choice and lower prices on goods.

"We agree that by combining the power of our economies, we can spur further development of clean energy technology."

According to a briefing by the US Environment Protection Agency on Tuesday, the two sides discussed four areas for environmental collaboration, including developing up to 15 large-scale coal-mine methane capture and utilization projects in China over the next five years and pushing ahead with the development of a low sulfur fuel policy for China.

Before the next session of the SED to be held in Beijing later this year, the two nations will complete the Joint Economic Study to evaluate different policy approaches for saving energy and controlling emissions from the Chinese and US power sectors.

The Chinese delegation was scheduled to meet the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi yesterday afternoon; and US President George W. Bush today. The Chinese delegation will head to Seattle to visit the Boeing plant before returning home tomorrow.

In the previous round of the SED held in Beijing last December, the two sides reached consensus on issues such as facilitating trade and investment, strengthening intellectual property rights and encouraging competition.

Agencies contributed to the story

(China Daily 05/24/2007 page1)