Chinese President Hu Jintao today said his country would help resolve the disputes over nuclear programmes in Iran and North Korea through diplomatic means.
Mr Hu said China was ready "to peacefully resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula and the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic negotiations."
He was speaking at an arrival ceremony at the White House while standing next to President Bush.
Although the two presidents hoped their talks in the White House would cool tensions over a yawning US-China trade gap, demonstrators massed outside to protest Beijing's human rights policies.
The talks between Mr Bush and Mr Hu, who was visiting the Washington for the first time as China's leader, were expected to produce little in the way of substance on the trade dispute and no breakthroughs on China's tightly controlled currency.
In addition to trade, Mr Bush was to raise a number of other issues with Mr Hu, including complaints about China's human rights record and questions over China's growing military strength and whether it poses a threat to Taiwan.
After two days spent wooing American business leaders in Washington state, Mr Hu arrived last night in Washington for the half-day summit for what were expected to be frank talks about America's €202 billion trade deficit with China, the biggest ever recorded with a single country.
That imbalance has spurred calls in Congress to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese products unless China halts trade practices that critics contend are unfair and have contributed to the loss of nearly three million US manufacturing jobs since 2001.
The spiritual movement Falun Gong, condemned by the Chinese government as an evil cult, gathered hundreds of demonstrators on street corners near the White House in the early morning. Marchers banged gongs, chanted and waved American and Chinese flags.
Banners denounced Mr Hu as a "Chinese dictator" responsible for genocide and other "crimes in Chinese labour camps and prisons."
Mr Hu had dinner at the home of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on Tuesday, and yesterday he received a warm welcome from employees at Boeing's massive Everett facilities.
Last week, a contingent of more than 200 Chinese trade officials and business executives toured the United States, signing sales contracts in American goods, including 80 Boeing jetliners, all in an effort to show that China is trying to bring down the massive trade gap between the two nations.
Agencies