Hu, Obama to mend fences during Washington sit-down

The presence of Hu in the U.S. capital is a sign that relations are recovering from a chill, which set in after Obama visited Hu in Beijing last November, over issues including the value of the yuan, trade and Internet freedom.

A surprise visit to Beijing on Thursday by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who opted to discuss some of the trouble spots in person after pushing back a potentially sensitive report, also served to soothe tensions.

“We believe we can address challenges in our relationship,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told journalists at a briefing on Hu's trip, which will also include several stops in Latin America.

“Certainly China and the United States may have different views on many issues, including the world economic crisis and trade, but we can't overlook the fact that both also have shared interests.”

The two countries are working together to resolve the standoff over Iran's suspect nuclear programme, and are also partners in stalled negotiations to end North Korea's atomic drive. Just over a week ago, Obama held a rare one-hour telephone conversation with Hu that “underscored the importance of working together to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations”, the White House said.

The two leaders will likely meet on Monday on the sidelines of an international summit on nuclear security, the White House has said.

“Beijing's announcement that president Hu will attend the April nuclear security summit indicates that Beijing is calming down,” said Zhu Feng, an expert on U.S. relations at Peking University's School of International Studies.

“Despite a residual and marked dissatisfaction, China isn't willing to derail the relationship with Washington, and instead wants to leave the rift behind and move forward with collaboration between the two powers,” Zhu said in a posting on the Asian Security Initiative blog.

Earlier this year, relations between the U.S. and China — the world's biggest and third-largest economies — hit a rough patch after Obama in January approved the sale of 6.4 billion dollars in arms to Taiwan.

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