Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney during their meeting in Washington April 20. -Xinhua

Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday met separately with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and other top US officials, and both sides agreed to improve bilateral relations.

Hu told Cheney that he had very good talks with U.S. President George W. Bush earlier in the day, during which they agreed that as two important nations in the world, China and the United States share a broad range of common strategic interests.

Facing the new international situation, Hu said, the two nations need to increase dialogue, expand consensus, enhance mutual trust and deepen cooperation to advance bilateral constructive and cooperative relations in the 21st century and to make new contributions to promoting peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region and the world as a whole.

Saying that the two nations have established sound, solid and healthy relations, Cheney said the U.S.-China relations are crucial to the contemporary world and he is supportive of building strategic relations between the two nations.

In a meeting with Senate President Pro Tempore Ted Stevens and other U.S. Congressional leaders, Hu expressed appreciation of their long-time efforts to support the development of Sino-U.S. relations.

China attaches great importance to its communications with the U.S. Congress, Hu said.

More and more U.S. lawmakers have acknowledged the importance of China-U.S. relations and put forward a series of proposals to advance bilateral trade, cultural and educational exchanges, Hu said.

The Chinese president voiced the hope that the U.S. lawmakers will continue their efforts to increase people-to-people exchanges of the two nations and to contribute more to enhance mutual understanding and friendship.

Stevens recalled his early years when he fought Japanese invaders side by side with the Chinese people during World War II.

He said he is glad to see the progress of China and the development of U.S.-China relations.

Stevens said the relationship between the two countries is a global issue on which the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region and the whole world heavily depends.

The U.S. Congressional leaders also expressed their views on how to enhance the bilateral cooperation in energy, environmental protection, space technology and other areas.

In a separate meeting, Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security advisor, said that the Chinese president's successful visit will further promote the positive relations which already exist between the two nations and will serve as a reminder to the two peoples that maintaining a sound bilateral relationship benefits both sides.

During the meetings, Hu stressed that this visit has further strengthened his belief that in the contemporary world, the United States and China share extensive and important common strategic interests.

He said the two nations should be not only stakeholders, but also constructive cooperators.

Advancing mutually beneficial relations not only yields concrete benefits for the two peoples, but also is of great importance to peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large, Hu noted.

A healthy and stable development of China-U.S. relations will benefit the two peoples as well as all the people in the world, he said.

The president was accompanied by Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan at the meetings.

Hu arrived in Washington from Seattle on Wednesday evening and held talks with President Bush on Thursday.

On Friday, Hu will deliver a speech at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, before winding up his U.S. trip.