WASHINGTON: Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping called on US President Barack Obama at the White House Tuesday and delivered a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Xi is presently undertaking a five-day US visit.
Accroding to BBC, the 58-year-old Xi is widely expected to succeed Chinese President Hu Jintao, who must retire as head of the Communist Party later this year and from the presidency in 2013.
Hu, in his letter to the US president, has expressed a desire to make joint efforts with Obama to grasp opportunities and overcome difficulties and to further promote the building of the China-US cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit, Xinhua reported.
Xi said his visit was aimed at implementing the important consensus reached by the presidents of the two countries on the promotion of bilateral ties.
His visit's objective, said Xi, was also to increase consensus, deepen friendship and communicate with people from various walks of life in the US.
In his opening remarks, Xi said that he listened to the proposals of several former US officials at a meeting Monday, and reached consensus with his US counterpart, Joe Biden, in talks earlier Tuesday morning.