WASHINGTON - Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan on Thursday met with US President Barack Obama at the White House on bilateral ties.

Wang stressed the importance of building a new type of relations between major countries, saying that the two countries should constantly enrich and expand the connotation of the bilateral relations and translate their consensus and intentions into policies and actions.

The party, government and leaders of China as always highly value the development of the relations with the United States and look forward to developing economic and trade cooperation with the US towards a wider range and a higher level, he said.

Marking the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Shanghai Communique, bilateral trade volume has approached $500 billion . China is willing to discuss the ways to maintain and perfect the economic dialogue mechanism with the US under the new situation, Wang said.

For his part, Obama said the energetic, frank and fruitful relations between the United States and China should be continued during his second term.

Against the backdrop of global economic downturn, promoting energetic and effective economic relations is still the core of the US-China relations, Obama said.

The two sides should seize the opportunities and promote dialogues in the field of economy, he said, adding that sincere and frank dialogues would benefit the bilateral relations.

Obama also said he is looking forward to meeting with Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Earlier on Thursday, Wang also met separately with US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon on bilateral economic relations and international and regional security.