China and the United States should further cooperate on energy, environment, as well as the safety of products, food and drugs, said Vice Premier Wang Qishan in Beijing on Thursday.

Wang made the remarks when addressing the opening ceremony of the fifth strategic economic dialogue (SED) in the morning.

Wang said China and the United States have great potential if they cooperate on energy and environment, and have already achieved progress in fields of water, atmosphere, electric power, transportation, forestry and wetlands since the two countries signed framework agreements on energy and environment.

Citing the US leading advantages in energy and environment technology, Wang said China now is working on saving energy and reducing emissions, and hopes to continuously conduct closer technological cooperation with the United States.

"We hope the US side could strengthen technology transfers to China and implement more concrete measures to promote energy and environment cooperation," he said.

On the safety of products, food and drugs, Wang said China and the United States share wide interests.

The US Food and Drug Administration opened three offices in China last month to help ensure export safety while China is preparing to place offices in the US as well.

"It is a fresh measure taken to meet new needs, helpful for our two nations to enhance communication, deepen mutual trust and learn from each other," Wang said.

"I hope we both will take this opportunity to continuously strengthen cooperation on investigating technology, process inspection and information sharing," he added.

Initiated by the two presidents in 2006, the twice-yearly SED is the highest-level of dialogue between the two nations. Beijing is hosting the current two-day session.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2008)