Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama met in Seoul Thursday to exchange views on Sino-U.S. relations and other major world and regional issues of common concern.

Hu and Obama are meeting on the sidelines of the fifth Group of 20 (G20) summit, at which the participants will mainly discuss how to deal with challenges to the ongoing global economic recovery from a world financial crisis and pave the way for future sustainable and balanced growth.

This is the third meeting between Hu and Obama in eight months. They met in Washington last April when President Hu was there to attend a nuclear security summit. They met again in Toronto, Canada, last June on the sidelines of the fourth summit of G20.

During their Toronto meeting, Hu accepted Obama's invitation for a state visit to the United States early next year.

"China and the United States have maintained close communications on matters concerning the visit," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told a regular press conference last month.

He said that both China and the United States are expecting the visit to be successful in making progress on a positive, cooperative and comprehensive China-U.S. relationship in the 21st century.

In a meeting with two senior U.S. officials last September, President Hu called on China and the United States to view their bilateral relationship from a global and strategic perspective.

Furthering the positive, cooperative and comprehensive China-U.S. relationship is more important than ever before, as the world is still facing an uncertain economic recovery and various prominent challenges, Hu told Lawrence Summers, head of President Obama's National Economic Council, and then U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon.

"China and the United States should make unremitting efforts to enhance dialogue and cooperation, increase common interests, and properly handle problems that emerge in bilateral ties," Hu said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2010)