Chinese President Hu Jintao left for the United States yesterday bearing business deals and soothing words intended to allay US fears about China’s ambitions, but he faces a US audience keen for more results.

The highlight of Hu’s four-day trip will be a summit on Thursday with US President George W. Bush. But he will first touch down in Seattle, where he will tour a production plant of Boeing Co, whose business has boomed on Chinese orders.

Hu, whose entourage includes his foreign and trade ministers, will also dine at the $100 million home of Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft Corp. and the world’s richest man.

China sought to quell US trade complaints by signing contracts worth $16.2 billion while Vice Premier Wu Yi visited the United States last week, an editorial in the state-run China Daily said Tuesday.

“Hu’s trip is set to clear US minds of doubts and suspicion about China”, the newspaper said.

But on Monday, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said Beijing had been “agonisingly slow” in reforming its currency – a key demand in Washington, where many say China’s yuan is undervalued, making Chinese exports artificially cheap.

Hu is seeking to calm US audiences not only about trade, but also China’s long-range ambitions.

In Seattle, Hu will meet US and Chinese academics, including Zheng Bijian, a long-time Communist Party adviser who has promoted the idea that China’s “peaceful rise” need not provoke severe conflict with Washington.

Each leader will be looking for general commitments that address his own concerns. Bush has singled out his country’s trade deficit with China – $202 billion in 2005 – as his sorest point.

Bush also has plans to press Hu to do more to stamp out commercial piracy of US patents, brands and copyrights. And he has said he wants China to loosen currency controls faster to help balance trade flows.

But Chinese officials have said recently that their country must move at its own pace and will not be pushed by Washington into sudden currency and trade changes.

Vice Premier Wu said it was “unscientific” to blame China alone for the bilateral trade gap.

<B>Chris Buckley</B>