Following up consensus made during hu's visit

"Following on the successful visit of President Hu Jintao to Washington earlier this year, our intent is to make sure that we follow through on many of the areas that the two leaders and their senior teams committed to work together on," said Assistant Secretary of State Campbell.

On the strategic track, Campbell said that the United States wants to compare notes with China on issues related to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, the nuclear issue of Iran, and other regional problems.

He also said both sides would have discussions about such cross-cutting issues as energy security, development, and food assistance.

On the economic track, Roy believed that the dialogue should follow up what have been achieved during President Hu's visit. "I think the focus needs to be on follow up to the discussions in connection with Hu's visit in January," he said.

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Speaking to reporters on Thursday, David Loevinger, senior coordinator and executive secretary for China and S&ED at the Department of Treasury, said Washington wants to have discussions on the revaluation of the Chinese yuan, intellectual property rights, interest rates ceiling and financial services.

He expected the Chinese side will have priorities on market access, greater access to US high-technology exports, recognition as a market economy and new investment opportunities for Chinese enterprises in the United States.

Innovation: strategic security dialogue

On Friday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai announced in Beijing that China and the United States will launch their first strategic security dialogue during the third S&ED in Washington.

Cui said the dialogue will be co-chaired by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun and US Deputy State Secretary James Steinberg. Leading officials from diplomatic and military departments of both sides will also attend dialogue.

"On the strategic side, the story is this new dialogue -- the strategic security dialogue," Bonnie Glaser, a senior fellow in the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Xinhua in an interview.

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State Campbell described the strategic security dialogue as an "innovation" of the coming S&ED.

"I think our goal here is to create greater understanding around issues that have the potential for miscalculation and inadvertence in our relationship, and I think we all recognize that these security issues are increasingly important in the smooth management of our relationship going forward," he said.