US President George W. Bush pressed President Hu Jintao yesterday to rein in China?s swelling trade surplus and push forward currency reform after calling for greater religious freedom.

But there were few signs that China had offered any major concessions after talks in the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, with Hu retracing old steps with statements on willingness to cooperate further on the currency and trade.

One positive move on trade was an agreement by China to buy 70 Boeing 737s in a deal worth $4 billion. The near-perennial US trade deficit with China, a lightning rod for criticism in the US Congress, could top $200 billion this year.

At a joint news conference after their talks, Hu said he and Bush had expressed a willingness to ?join hands together? to achieve more equitable trade and China would press ahead with the reform of its yuan currency.

Hu, who accepted an invitation to visit Washington, most likely in the spring, also pledged China?s cooperation in fighting the widespread piracy of American goods ranging from music and films to birth control pills and brake pads, which costs US manufacturers billions in lost sales each year.

Continuing a theme of his four-country Asia tour, Bush said it was important that social, political and religious freedoms grow in China. To underscore this, the US president attended a service yesterday at Gangwashi Church, one of five officially recognised Protestant churches in the capital.

Security officials cordoned off an area of several hundred metres around the church in western Beijing, which was heavily guarded by police in riot gear and plain clothes as groups of bemused locals stood around waiting for the president to pass by.

?May God bless the Christians of China?, Bush wrote in the church guest book. His wife, Laura, added: ?With love and respect.? The pastor gave them Chinese Bibles.

US officials were concerned when a Chinese court recently sentenced a Protestant minister, his wife and her brother to prison terms of up to three years for illegally printing Bibles and other Christian publications.

?My hope is that the government of China will not fear Christians who gather to worship openly?, Bush told reporters. ?A healthy society is a society that welcomes all faiths.?

Before coming to Beijing, Bush urged China to make political reforms, holding up its political rival Taiwan, which Beijing regards as part of China, as a model democracy. China played down Bush?s comments. Hu said he had told Bush of ?China?s unswerving commitment to a road of peaceful development and China?s development in terms of democrat ic politics and human rights?.

Widening gap between rich and poor

China has 80 million Christians and allows worship in officially sanctioned churches. But tens of millions attend underground churches that refuse to accept state authority. Hu also told Bush he was committed to peace and stability in the Taiwan strait (see also insert).

Bush faces rising concern among US politicians and manufacturers about the cheap yuan currency, and the president said Washington and Beijing would cooperate in making the yuan?s exchange rate more responsive to market-driven forces.

In July, China ended a policy of pegging the yuan to the dollar, revaluing it by 2.1 percent and moving to a managed float in reference to a basket of currencies. Bush has praised the move as a good first step but has repeatedly urged China to do more.

Hu said China would ?unswervingly? press ahead with reform of the yuan, but offered no specific measures. A senior administration official told Hu?s tone appeared more positive about currency reform, and offered a sense that China was taking US concerns about infringement of intellectual property rights seriously.

China is concerned about upsetting social stability, fearful of widespread domestic problems including a widening gap between rich and poor, regular protests by laid-off workers and retirees demanding their pensions, and a rickety banking sector. China is the third leg of Bush?s Asian trip, after Japan and South Korea. He goes on to Mongolia today.

Caren BOHAN Steve HOLLAND

RELATIONS WITH TAIWAN

Rice shows concern at China?s military build-up

■ United States hopes to keep a balance in the region : this is the message voiced by Secretary of State Condoleeezza Rice over China?s military build-up. Meanwhile, Chinese President Hu Jintao sought to reassure visiting President George W. Bush that China?s rise would be peaceful. ?There?s a question of intent,? Rice told reporters, referring to the modernisation of the 2.5-million-strong People?s Liberation Army. ?Obviously both in terms of our own military presence and forces, we expect that we will be able to keep a balance in this region,? Rice said. Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has vowed to attack the self-ruled democratic island if it formally declares independence. Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but remains the island?s main arms supplier and trading partner. When he first came to office Bush vowed to do whatever it took to help Taiwan defend itself. Hu said he had briefed Bush about China?s unswerving commitment to a role of peaceful development. ?China?s commitment to a role of peaceful development is a choice that China must make in light of its national conditions,? Hu said. ?It?s a choice that China must make on the basis of its historical and cultural heritage and also a choice that China must make in light of the current trend in the development of the world,? he added.