BEIJING - The Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that President Hu Jintao will visit the United States in January, as the two world powers seek to ease economic spats and strains on the Korean Peninsula.

The visit, nearly coinciding with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates' arrival in Beijing in January which signals resumed military ties, will be a gift to fluctuating relations between Beijing and Washington at the start of a new year, experts said.

China and the United States are in close touch over President Hu's state visit to the US in January, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at regular press briefing on Thursday.

"President Hu's visit will be a major event of China-US relations in the new era, and China hopes the visit could further push forward the positive, cooperative and comprehensive China-US relations," the spokeswoman said. She did not specify the date of the visit, however.

Jiang was responding to a statement the White House issued on its website on Wednesday.

US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will offer a state dinner for Hu upon his arrival, said the document.

This will mark the third formal state visit Obama and his wife have hosted. They have previously hosted the leaders of India and Mexico.

Obama visited Beijing and Shanghai last year and received a highest-level reception.

So far, it is not clear how long Hu will stay in the United States. Former Chinese leaders Jiang Zemin and Deng Xiaoping visited other US cities as well as Washington.

Hu's visit will come at a time of aggravated tensions between Washington and Beijing on business issues - including the spat over the value of China's currency, though military ties have shown positive signals after a senior Chinese military leader's visit to the US earlier this month.

The Pentagon has announced Gates will travel to China from January 9 to 12, one year after Beijing severed military relations with Washington in protest against a multi-billion-dollar US arms package for Taiwan.

However, the White House statement presented a positive tone and pinned high expectations on the visit.

"The president looks forward to welcoming President Hu to Washington to continue building a partnership that advances our common interests and addresses our shared concerns," the document said.

"President Hu's visit will highlight the importance of expanding cooperation between the United States and China on bilateral, regional and global issues, as well as the friendship between the peoples of our two countries," it said.

Sun Zhe, director of the Center for US-China Relations at Tsinghua University, said the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula could very likely become a major topic during Hu's visit. Still, "I don't see much improvement of US-Democratic People's Republic of Korea relations within a month, because there aren't many binding powers to restrain the US," Sun said. He also said there is high degree of possibility that the US will take the chance to bring up specific requests, such as freezing Pyongyang's bank accounts.

However, the time of the visit was basically chosen out of practical reasons, which were convenient for both sides, he said.

Carefully negotiated summits between Chinese and US leaders such as this are more about nurturing understanding than scoring policy breakthroughs, David Lampton, a professor of China studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, told Reuters.

"Lately, one of the biggest problems in US-China relations is that each side has had excessive expectations of what the other could conceivably deliver," Lampton wrote in an e-mail about Hu's trip.

Ma Liyao and Agencies contributed to this story.

China Daily

(China Daily 12/24/2010 page11)