US President Barack Obama steps off Air Force One on November 16, 2009 upon arrival at Capital International Airport in Beijing. Obama arrived in Beijing from Shanghai, for the second leg of his maiden state visit to China.
Photograph by: MANDEL NGAN
Credit: AFP

After two hours of talks, and a meeting over dinner the night before, the presidents spoke of moving beyond the divisions over human rights, trade and military tensions that have long bedevilled their countries' relations.

''The major challenges of the 21st century, from climate change to nuclear proliferation, to economic recovery, are challenges that touch both our nations, and challenges that neither of our nations can solve by acting alone," Obama said, standing with Hu in the Great Hall of the People.

Hu, whose collective leadership has often preferred to go it alone internationally, said: ''There are growing global challenges and countries in today's world have become more and more interdependent.''

With each of those big issues - from global warming to the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programmes - persistent differences bubbled up in the form of indirect barbs during the leaders' joint appearance.

Stung by new US levies on imports of Chinese-made tyres and steel pipes, Hu said he had told Obama that both countries "needed to oppose protectionism in all its manifestations".

Obama called on China to relax controls that keep its currency relatively weak and thus help fuel its exports - something Beijing officials have rejected in recent days.

Obama pointedly raised human rights: ''We do not believe these principles are unique to America, but that they are universal rights and should be available to all peoples, to all ethnic and religious minorities."

On his first visit to China, Obama said: "Our relationship will not be without disagreement or difficulty, but because of our co-operation both the US and China are more prosperous and secure."

In a minor advance, the two leaders set a deadline of early next year for resuming talks on human rights.

They agreed to reciprocal visits by the heads of their space programmes.

Promises were made to step up visits by military leaders to help overcome years of distrust over a Chinese military build-up and US reconnaissance missions in the seas off China.

Headway was made on climate change.

The two presidents committed their countries, the biggest emitters of the gases that cause global warming, to backing a detailed agreement at next month's climate-change conference in Copenhagen.