Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President George W. Bush stressed on Thursday the importance to reinforce cooperation between the two countries.

"Enhanced interactions and cooperation between China and the United States serve the interests of our two peoples and are conducive to world peace and development," Hu said at a welcoming ceremony held by US President George W. Bush on the White House South Lawn.

Hu said "the mutually beneficial and win-win China-US economic cooperation and trade benefit our two peoples and promote the economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large."

Economic cooperation and trade between the two countries "have become an important foundation for China-US relations," Hu said.

Hu urged the two sides to view and approach bilateral ties from a strategic and long-term perspective.

The Chinese president said that China and the United States, as two countries of significant influence in the world, "share important common strategic interests in a wide range of areas, including economic cooperation and trade, security, public health, energy and environmental protection, and on major international and regional issues."

"We should, on the basis of the principles set forth in the three Sino-US joint communiques, respect each other as equals and promote closer exchanges and cooperation," said Hu. "This will enable us to make steady progress in advancing constructive and cooperative China-US relations and bring more benefits to our two peoples and the people of the world."

Hu expressed appreciation to the US commitment to one-China policy while delivering his speech. "We will work with our Taiwan compatriots to promote the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations," Hu Jintao said, "however, we will never allow anyone to make Taiwan secede from China by any means."

Bush, for his part, said, "As stakeholders in the international system, our two nations share many strategic interests" and the two countries share a common interest in expanding trade, which has increased the prosperity of both peoples.

"Our trade relationship can become even stronger," said Bush.

Bush said that the United States and China share strategic interests in enhancing world security by cooperating in addressing global threats including proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, natural disasters, as well as avian flu and other pandemic disease.

The Chinese president arrived in Washington Wednesday evening from Seattle. The United States is the first leg of Hu's current five-nation tour, which will also take him to Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya.

(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2006)