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Second round of talks gets under way

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President Hu Jintao promised yesterday that Beijing would proceed with reform of its controversial exchange rate controls, while US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called on China to reduce trade barriers to develop a more balanced global economy.

Hu said Beijing would implement reform according to its own agenda, while Vice-Premier Wang Qishan urged the United States to provide details and a timetable for its planned relaxation of restrictions on hi-tech exports to China.

But both sides appeared more willing to compromise in dealing with long-standing bilateral stumbling blocks including trade and currency concerns, and pledged to work together in the face of growing uncertainties stemming from the euro-zone debt crisis.

'China will continue to steadily advance the reform of the formation of the renminbi exchange rate mechanism under the principle of independent decision-making, controllability and gradual progress,' Hu said yesterday during the opening ceremony for the biannual strategic and economic dialogue.

The second dialogue meeting, following one in Washington in July, is a two-track affair over two days. The economic track is chaired by Wang and Geithner, with the strategic track chaired by State Councillor Dai Bingguo and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In a sign of the importance Washington has given to the meeting, about 200 US officials have come to Beijing - a number Clinton said she believed was unprecedented.

'We hope to hear from the US side in detail its timetable and roadmap on gradually removing barriers to hi-tech exports to China, giving equal treatment to Chinese enterprises investing in the US, and recognising China's market economy status,' Wang said at a speech before the economic talks.

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