Last updated at 6.05pm: Former US President Bill Clinton stressed the importance of ties with China and the rest of Asia for bringing global peace and prosperity in a rousing closing address to the Fortune Global Forum on Thursday. In a passionate, but conciliatory speech, Mr Clinton said mutual interests and free trade were the keys to a better world. ''It is imperative to complete China's accession to the WTO at the earliest possible moment,'' Mr Clinton said, adding that that it important to grasp the fact that the relationship between Washington and Beijing was not ''inherently adversarial'' and that ''the world will be a better place in the next 50 years if we are partners.'' While there were inevitable ''bumps on the road'', Mr Clinton said that the underlying trend was a continuing improvement in ties. He cited the example of mainland basketball prodigy Wang Zhizhi, who, Mr Clinton said was watched by over 400 million Chinese for his first match in the NBA, something that would have been ''unimaginable ten years ago''. Mr Clinton, speaking to around 700 local and international business executives, said that building a harmonious relationship between ''the world's oldest democracy and the world's oldest civilisation and most populous country'' was a cornerstone to his administration's foreign policy. Problems such as the recent spy plane impasse and accidental bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade in May 1999, had to be worked through. Mr Clinton also gave the most impassioned expression of regret to date for the bombing, which took place during his period of office. Describing it as a ''terrible accident,'' he said it was ''something I still profoundly regret''. Building better ties with India, movement towards normalisation of relations with Vietnam, mine clearance assistance in Cambodia and helping East Timor in its struggle for independence, were other initiatives undertaken during his term of office that had helped regional peace. Hong Kong as ''exhibit A in the case for global interdependence'' was the perfect location to hold the high-profile conference, said Mr Clinton, who praised the SAR's free-market policies and dynamism as a model to be emulated. Mr Clinton told the conference that developing nations that open their economies ''grew twice as fast as those who kept their doors closed and tariffs high''. The latter part of the address was devoted to development, with Mr Clinton singling out female education and the scourge of Aids as needing urgent attention from the international community. Citing the example of China, Mr Clinton gave lack of the Aids awareness as the main barrier to combatting the menace. Mr Clinton, who met President Jiang Zemin for over an hour yesterday, will leave the SAR for Shanghai, where he is to address another business conference. The three-day conference has been marred by demonstrations by groups ranging from the Falun Gong, and pro-democracy activists to Right of Abode protesters.