During Tuesday's talks, the two sides reached consensus on a wide range of issues, including intellectual property protection, medical equipment acquisition and information security, officials said.

Ahead of this, five bilateral agreements were signed by senior officials from the two sides in areas like agricultural cooperation, food safety, trade statistics and rural information and communications technology development.

The Chinese side also announced to lift bird flu-related ban on poultry products from seven U.S. states including New York, and conditionally resume imports of American beef, while the U.S. side expressed its stance against trade protectionism and promised to push for the lifting of trade barriers against some Chinese products like see food, fruit and woodcraft.

Tuesday's meeting marked the 25th anniversary of the China-U.S. JCCT commission, a high-level government-to-government dialogue seeking to open market opportunities and resolve trade disputes between the two countries.

Wang was leading a big delegation of senior officials from the Ministry of Commerce, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and other ministries for the event.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan (C) speaks while US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez (L) and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab talk with each other during a press conference for the 19th session of the China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in a Los Angeles suburb, on Sep. 16, 2008.Senior officials of China and the United States gathered here on Tuesday to discuss various business and trade issues in order to seek ways to facilitate bilateral economic relations between the two countries. [Zhang Yan/Xinhua]

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2008)