President Hu Jintao extended welcome to American investment in China while meeting with Chinese and US business executives in Washington Wednesday noon, pledging continuous efforts to provide transparent, fair and highly efficient investment environment for investors including those from the United States.

The Chinese president stressed that all enterprises registered in China enjoy national treatment, adding that foreign businesses are treated equally on government procurement, the protection of intellectual property rights and the accreditation of independent innovation products.

Hu also expressed support for Chinese firms investing in the US and the confidence that the Obama administration will provide fair investment environment for Chinese companies.

US president Barack Obama, who joined Hu in talks with the business executives, noted that relations between China and the US should go beyond the government level and that there is still great potential in Sino-US economic and trade exchanges.

Among the business leaders participating in the talks were Lou Jiwei, board chairman of China Investment Corp, the nation's $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, and Liu Chuanzhi, board chairman of Lenovo Group, as well as top executives from US companies including Microsoft and Goldman Sachs.