Friday, September 22 2006 15:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao accorded a warm welcome to US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson here Friday and established an economic strategic dialogue to address long-term economic relations between the two countries. "China and the United States have jointly announced the establishment of the China-US economic strategic dialogue. The two sides should have in-depth discussions on bilateral and global strategic economic issues under the dialogue mechanism," Hu said. Hu said the economics dialogue would help "make suggestions for high-level policy making by the two nations". Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and Paulson, as special representatives of President Hu and US President George W. Bush respectively, will co-chair the dialogue. The dialogue will convene semi-annually in Beijing and Washington, with the first meeting to be held before the end of 2006. Hu suggested the economic strategic dialogue, along with such existing China-US dialogue mechanisms like the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade and Joint Economic Committee, serves the purpose of "deepening bilateral trade cooperation and promoting common development".