Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao(left) shakes hands with his US counterpart George W. Bush in New York yesterday.-- Xinhua

Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President George W Bush met here Tuesday to discuss development of the China-US relations and exchange views on major world and regional issues.

The meeting is an important one for Sino-US relations, which are at "a crucial period" linking the past to the future, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang yesterday at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

"We would like to work with the United States to look at and address bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective so as to push forward Sino-US constructive co-operative relations."

The talks between the two presidents in New York will not replace Hu's planned visit to Washington, which both sides agreed to postpone because of Hurricane Katrina.

Later today, Hu will attend the opening ceremony of the UN summit and deliver speeches at the plenary session and high-level meeting on Development and Financing, as well as the Summit of the Security Council.

The Chinese president arrived in New York only hours ago for the UN summit slated for Sept. 14-16.

President Hu flew in from Mexico City after a state visit to the Latin American country. He visited Canada before the Mexico trip.