Former US president Jimmy Carter has said Barack Obama should ensure "openness in discussion" with China so that disagreements between the two can be resolved in a mutually respectful and peaceful way.

Speaking on Thursday from the Carter Center – a nonprofit organization he set up in Atlanta, Georgia in 1981 with his wife Rosalynn – Carter said he had spoken over the telephone with the president-elect's top advisors and will have meetings with the designated secretary of state, national security advisor and ambassador to the United Nations before Obama's inauguration on January 20.

Carter said he sees the United States and China working together for peace during the next administration.

"I think there could be some direct sharing of responsibility (between the US and China) for countries in Africa that are desperately in trouble," Carter said, naming Zimbabwe and Sudan's Darfur region as examples.

"Representatives from the US and China can work together harmoniously within the UN environment," he said, while acknowledging that that would mean a major shift for China, which has a policy of noninterference in other countries' sovereign affairs.

Mobility and free enterprise are major human rights victories for the Chinese people, he said, adding that China has accomplished much in the human rights field in a relatively short period of time.

Carter, a devout Christian, also said freedom of religion is an important measure of human rights, and another where China has an improving record.

A study conducted last year by East China Normal University said China might have as many as 300 million religious believers, of which 40 million are Christians. Other estimates have put the Christian population at about 100 million.

"I see that as a major, largely unrecognized, degree of human rights progress," Carter said, adding that he would like to see still fewer government restrictions on religion.

China was an early beneficiary of the Carter Center, and for more than a decade, it has helped China standardize its village-level election procedures.

It also supports several websites for Chinese people aimed at increasing political debate and transparency.

Now, the center is looking to benefit from China, and perhaps use its relationship with the US, too.

"Next year, we will be exploring how a tiny organization like the Carter Center can work together with the nation of China to deal with humanitarian, primarily health, problems in Africa.

"I think it would be easy to include USAID (the US Agency for International Development) and the government of America," he said.

(China Daily December 11, 2008)