KENNEBUNKPORT (Maine) Aug 2: President George W. Bush and China’s President Jiang Zemin will launch a new bid to ease troubled Sino-US relations in the informal setting of the US leader’s Texas ranch, the White House said Friday.

Bush, who has already visited China twice in less than two years as president, invited Jiang to his isolated homestead for talks on October 25, on a trip which will also take the Chinese leader to Mexico for the Asia-Pacific Cooperation forum summit.

The invitation will be seen by China watchers as a feather in Jiang’s cap as he highlights his shepherding of the turbulent US-China relationship, ahead of an expected power transfer in China’s communist party this year.

It will also be seen as a victory for the more moderate wing of the US foreign policy establishment, which emphasizes engagement with Beijing.

Informed sources have said that China hawks in the administration had argued against inviting Jiang to Crawford, a honour accorded so far to leaders described as friends of Bush including Mexican President Vicente Fox and Russian President Vladimir Putin.—AFP