China and the US have agreed to set up a “strategic and economic dialogue” mechanism that will have its first meeting in a few months, President Hu Jintao and his US counterpart Barak Obama announced in London yesterday. The two sides will host the first round of dialogue in Washington DC this summer.

Hu arrived in London around noon for the G20 summit and his meeting with Obama was the first item on the agenda of his two-day stay in London.

It is also the first meeting between the world’s biggest debtor and creditor and it has been described by Obama as “productive and open”. Obama has accepted an invitation from Hu to visit China later this year.

On the first day of arrival, President Hu Jintao also met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.