Top China military official visits US as ties warm

BEIJING - A vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission has left for the United States on the highest ranking military visit since a Chinese fighter jet collided with a US surveillance plane in 2001.

Guo Boxiong, who ranks second only to President Hu Jintao in the commission, China's top military body, left on Sunday for Washington, at the invitation of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the official Xinhua new agency said.

The visit was "the most important Chinese military exchange with another country this year", Xinhua quoted Qian Lihua, at the Foreign Affairs Office of China's Defence Ministry, as saying.

Guo's trip is the latest sign of improving military relations between Beijing and Washington, cut off after the spy plane crash over the South China Sea, sparking a diplomatic feud.

It also comes as China and the United States seek a common strategy to lure North Korea back to six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear programmes, a task made more urgent since the North test-fired several missiles earlier this month.

The US, which has repeatedly said Beijing's military build-up is not transparent, is keen for China to reciprocate the access Washington has given the Chinese defence forces, Pentagon officials have said.

- REUTERS