The U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue will take place on May 13-14 in Washington, announced U.S. State Department on Thursday.?

The U.S. delegation will be led by Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner. The Chinese delegation will be headed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for International Organizations Chen Xu.

The human rights dialogue, which was scheduled by the end of February, had been delayed due to tensions between Washington and Beijing over U.S. arms sale to Taiwan and U.S. President Barack Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama early this year.

According to the joint statement issued by the two countries during President Obama's visit to China last November, China and the United States underlined that each country and its people have the right to choose their own path, and agreed to hold the next round of human rights dialogue in Washington by the end of February 2010.

"Both sides recognized that China and the United States have differences on the issue of human rights," said the statement, "Addressing these differences in the spirit of equality and mutual respect, as well as promoting and protecting human rights consistent with international human rights instruments, the two sides agreed to hold the next round of the official human rights dialogue in Washington D.C. by the end of February 2010."

The two sides agreed that promoting cooperation in the field of law and exchanges on the rule of law serves the interests and needs of the citizens and governments of both countries.