Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday proposed four points to further advance China-U.S. ties.

"We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship, and lose from confrontation," said Hu, who is to pay a state visit to the United States from Tuesday to Friday, in a written interview with reporters from Wall Street Journal and Washington Post on Monday.

"We should act in the fundamental interests of our two peoples and uphold the overall interests of world peace and development. We should rise up to challenges, remove disturbances, work for shared goals and promote continuous growth of our relations," Hu said.

The four points the Chinese president reiterated to advance Sino-American relations are:

"First, we should increase dialogue and contact and enhance strategic mutual trust. Second, we should abandon the zero-sum Cold War mentality, view each other's development in an objective and sensible way, respect each other's choice of development path, and pursue common development through win-win cooperation," Hu said.

"Third, we should respect each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests and properly address each other's major concerns. And fourth, we should make constant efforts to expand our converging interests so that China and the United States will be partners for cooperation in broader areas," he went on.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, thanks to the concerted efforts of both sides, China-U.S. relationship has on the whole enjoyed steady growth, Hu said.

"Since U.S. President Barack Obama took office, we have maintained close contact through exchange of visits, meetings, telephone conversations and letters," Hu said.

"We agreed to build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive China-U.S. relationship for the 21st century and together, we instituted the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues mechanism," Hu said.

"The strategic significance and global impact of China-U.S. relations have been on the rise," Hu said.

Over the past two years, China and the United States have carried out practical cooperation in a wide range of areas including economy and trade, energy, the environment, counter-terrorism, law enforcement and culture.

The two countries have maintained close contact and coordination in dealing with major international and regional hotspot issues and addressing global challenges, such as climate change and the international financial crisis, Hu said.

China and the United States have major influence in international affairs and shoulder important responsibilities in upholding world peace and promoting common development, Hu said.

"Under the new circumstances, the common interests of our two countries have been growing and areas of cooperation expanding," Hu said.

Hu said there is great potential for China-U.S. mutually beneficial cooperation in advancing Asia-Pacific regional cooperation and in improving global economic governance and promoting sustainable growth of the world economy.

There is also great potential in expanding cooperation in economy and trade and in strengthening cooperation in new areas like new and clean energy, infrastructure development and aviation and space, Hu said.

Great potential of cooperation also exists between the two nations in fighting terrorism and in preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and in meeting challenges like natural disasters, food security and major communicable diseases.

"There is no denying that there are some differences and sensitive issues between us," Hu said.

"Both sides should keep to the right direction in the development of our relations, increase exchanges, enhance mutual trust, seek common ground while reserving differences, properly manage differences and sensitive issues and jointly promote the long-term, sound and steady development of China-U.S. relations, " he said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2011)