July 25, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 09, 1428

WASHINGTON, July 24: US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will travel to China to open talks on Sunday on a variety of economic and trade issues, his office announced on Tuesday.

Paulson will “meet with government officials and discuss the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED)” launched last year, a Treasury statement said.

“This trip is part of an ongoing process to strengthen our strategic economic relationship -- to address long term issues such as working with China to rebalance its growth and increase the flexibility of its currency, and also to address short term issues as they arise,” Paulson said in a statement.

The visit comes amid growing pressure in Washington to deal with the massive US trade deficit with China.—AFP