Hu Jintao meets Asia-Pacific leaders

cctv.com 10-21-2003 10:03

China's President Hu Jintao has taken part in a flurry of bilateral talks with Asia-Pacific leaders on the sidelines of the annual APEC gathering.

This is the first time Hu Jintao has attended the APEC meeting as China's president.

His one-on-one meetings with other APEC leaders focused on bilateral ties and international issues such as the DPRK nuclear crisis and post-war Iraq.

US President George W. Bush congratulated Hu Jintao on China's successful completion of its first manned space flight.

Bush said he was looking forward to the upcoming visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to America later this year.

The two presidents agreed to settle their economic differences, including the issue of China's currency policy, through dialogue.

As for Pyongyang's nuclear crisis, the Chinese leader reaffirmed Beijing's stance that it supports a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

But he added that the reasonable safety concerns of the DPRK should also be addressed.

To his ROK counterpart Roh Moo-hyun, President Hu pledged to work hard with other countries to find a peaceful solution to the nuclear crisis.

The Chinese leader also raised the issue during his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On the reconstruction of Iraq, Hu Jintao and Putin called for an expansion of the United Nations' political role, and for the transfer of power to the Iraqi people to be speeded up.

The two leaders, who last met in Moscow in May, also vowed to further strengthen the Sino-Russian strategic partnership of cooperation.

Meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, President Hu said Japan must remove chemical weapons left behind by retreating Japanese soldiers at the end of the World War Two.

The chemical weapons issue gained urgency in recent weeks when a Chinese man was killed in August after coming into contact with mustard gas believed to have been buried in Qiqihar by Japanese troops during the war.

On the sidelines of the APEC meeting, the Chinese president also met his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, and Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa.

Editor:Su  Source:CCTV.com