President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who agreed to meet in Beijing this year, are looking to improve the often-tense relations between two nations seen as pivotal to hopes of ending the global economic crisis.
Top U.S. and Chinese ministers also plan to gather this summer in Washington in a closely watched conference, the countries said Wednesday at the start of the Group of 20 leading economies summit in London. The high-profile meetings signal the United States and China, despite often sharp differences on human rights, military and trade matters, believe that stronger cooperation is key to their own and the world's economic recovery.
Obama, speaking before his meeting with Hu in London, said the U.S.-China relationship "will help to set the stage for how the world deals with a whole host of challenges in the years to come."
Hu echoed Obama, saying a sound U.S.-China relationship "contributes to peace, stability and prosperity in the Asian Pacific region and in the world at large."
The Obama administration believes China, which like the United States is a veto-holding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, is critical to resolving the international economic and financial crisis, nuclear standoffs with North Korea and Iran, turmoil in Pakistan and Afghanistan and climate change.
As the world's third largest economy and the only major one still growing at a fast pace, China is taking a larger, more confident role in world economic affairs.
The United States, widely blamed for the economic meltdown, remains the world's largest economy. Obama, after more than two months in power, has begun a series of programs meant to lift the United States out of recession. He is looking for China, with its massive currency reserves, to provide more stimulus.
The U.S. and Chinese economies are intertwined, with China holding an estimated $1 trillion in U.S. government debt.
This week's G-20 gathering comes amid calls for greater economic cooperation.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick, writing last month in The Washington Post, said China and the United States should "join forces to prevent a protracted global recession."
"For the world's economy to recover, these two economic powerhouses must cooperate and become the engine for the Group of 20. Without a strong G-2, the G-20 will disappoint," wrote Zoellick and Justin Yifu Lin, chief economist at the World Bank in Washington.
Some worry that elevating U.S.-China economic cooperation too high could marginalize U.S. allies in Asia and Europe and allow China to ignore U.S. pressure to make changes in human rights, military and trade policies.
"If the Chinese think that we need them more than they need us, then they're going to be much less forthcoming on issues" of concern to the United States, said Michael Green, former President George W. Bush's former Asia adviser. "They're going to think that they're up on the hill and we're coming to them as a tributary state asking for help on all these problems."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will lead the U.S. side in a high-profile senior dialogue with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan.
There is skepticism, however, that a U.S.-China "Group of 2" is a good idea.
Derek Scissors, an analyst at The Heritage Foundation think tank, said Washington and Beijing are "looking to assign blame and find solutions, without regard for the broader impact of these measures."
He said that kind of atmosphere is not conducive to strengthening their partnership.
He wrote in an online posting Wednesday that "until and unless" the new high-level U.S.-China dialogue "yields results, it will be another venue for empty talk."
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Associated Press writer Elaine Kurtenbach in London contributed to this report.
