China tells US to make sure Beijing's investments are safe

China's top envoy to high-level economic talks with the United States urged Washington Thursday to make sure Chinese investments in the US economy were safe.

"We hope the US side will adopt every necessary measure to stabilise its economy and financial markets and ensure the safety of China's assets and investment in the United States," Vice Premier Wang Qishan said.

He made the remark in prepared comments at the start of two days of Sino-US economy talks in Beijing that he is co-chairing with US Treasury chief Henry Paulson.

At the end of September, China officially became the largest holder of US government bonds, owning 585 billion dollars' worth of Treasuries and overtaking Japan as Washington's top creditor.

China is spending a large part of its bulging trade surplus on buying US government debt, but criticism is emerging in Chinese academic and policy circles that this type of investment is not as safe as it used to be.

Wang also said China had adopted a series of policies to boost growth in China, referring to a recent four-trillion-yuan stimulus package earmarked especially for infrastructure spending.

"This is already a big contribution to the stable development of the world's finance and economy," he said.

He said the most pressing task China and the United States were currently facing was dealing with the global financial crisis.

"The current top priority... is to restore market confidence as soon as possible, to curb the financial crisis from spreading and to avoid overall global economic recession, especially to limit the impact on developing countries," Wang said.

The two-day Strategic Economic Dialogue, a twice-yearly event, is the last under the administration of US President George W. Bush.