Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone conversation with US President Barack Obama during his four-state South American trip in Fortaleza, Brazil on Monday night.

Xi said he and President Obama had agreed to continue to move forward to build "a new type of major-country relationship" during the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague in March.

The two leaders have kept close contact with each other since the summit and exchanged views about the just concluded sixth Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) and the fifth Annual US-China People-to-People Exchange in Beijing.

Xi said the outcomes from the dialogue have injected viability to the US-China relationship, with appreciation for Obama's greetings for the S&ED, where he said the US welcomed China's peaceful rise.

Xi said China has always regarded US-China relations from a strategic view and China is willing to work with the US to keep the two nations on the right path toward building a new type of major-country relationship.

Xi hopes the two economies will continue to focus on pushing for a bilateral trade and investment treaty and on major global and regional issues, including cooperation on climate change.

Xi added that the two countries should keep moving in a positive direction for a US-China relationship with mutual respect and constructive solutions to divergence.

Echoing Xi's comments, President Obama said the results of the recent S&ED showed that the two countries are on track to build a positive, secure and prosperous future, reinforcing the US' commitment to building "a new type of major-country relationship" with China.

The US wants to enhance cooperation with China in trade, energy, climate change and other hot-button issues, Obama said.

Xi and Obama also exchanged views on Iran. Xi said there had been progress in nuclear talks, but they still faced challenges. China is willing to work with the US and help the talks to reach an agreement at an early date. The two leaders will meet in the APEC meeting in November in Beijing.

Carlos Gutierrez, chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington-based global strategy firm, and a former Secretary of Commerce in the Bush Administration, said the just-concluded S&ED provides a "vision" for the world's two largest economies and will be a good platform for senior officials from both sides to communicate and exchange views on friction the two largest economies have experienced recently.

"I found a great willingness among government officials to talk about how we could make it better and how we can continue to build a relationship," said Gutierrez, who has participated in past S&ED talks and will attend the upcoming "economic track" of the dialogue in late July.

"There will always be ongoing matters that will be around, but I think we would see a very strong statement about the bilateral investment treaty that has been negotiated," said Gutierrez.

Contact the writers at wujiao@chinadaily.com.cn or yuweizhang@chinadailyusa.com