Wen Jiabao, China?s premier, on Monday urged the US administration to resist demands that it block imports from China, and said he would not engage in tit-for-tat retaliation against recent US moves.

?I have come to this country to seek friendship and co-operation, not to fight a trade war,? he said in a speech to the American Bankers Association in New York on the second day of his US visit. ?We should not and will not fight a trade war.?

The conciliatory words came against a backdrop of increasing US-China tensions over trade, fueled by a growing US trade deficit with China and charges from US manufacturers that China is manipulating its currency to hold down exports.

The Chinese premier has won plaudits among the country?s Asian trading partners for delivering the sort of rousing defence of free trade that was once the mantra of US presidents.

Now Mr Wen looks set to carry the same message to Washington when he will be meeting President George W. Bush.

?Reducing Chinese exports to the US is not a good answer,? he said in the speech, adding that it would ?seriously harm the interests of millions of American consumers and US firms operating in China?.

Instead, he urged the US not to ?politicise? trade and economic issues, and said ?a more realistic solution is for the US to expand its exports to China.?

He blasted Washington for maintaining Cold War-era national security restrictions on high-technology exports to China, calling for the US to ?make a clean break with those obsolete concepts and anachronistic practices, and throw them into the Pacific Ocean, so as to boldly keep pace with the times.?

The US last month said it was prepared to slap quotas on several fast-rising categories of clothing imports from China, and US textile companies say they want to see additional quotas imposed. Chinese companies have also been hit with import duties in a slew of anti-dumping cases brought by US manufacturers, most recently on large television sets.

A senior US official told reporters in Washington on Monday that the president would ask for concrete steps by China to begin moving towards a floating currency.

But Chinese officials said that the exchange rate was not the heart of the problem in US-China trade relations, and that attempts by the US to curb imports in response would only hurt both countries. Ma Kai, who heads China?s state development and reform commission, told reporters in New York that ?if we reform the exchange rate system irrationally when the conditions are not right, it would seriously disrupt China?s economy and the global economy.?

Mr Wen said in his speech that frictions with the US over various trade issues ?can be ironed out gradually since common understanding on them is entirely obtainable. They should not, and will not, stand in the way of the larger interests of US-China trade.?

Beijing has sent out signals that it is prepared to make large purchases of US goods such as aircraft and is ready to address at least some of Washington?s concerns over intellectual property protection and imports of agricultural products. Mr Wen said China was ?substantially increasing imports of farm products and machinery from the US?

Edward Alden