Bush, Hu talks cover North Korea, trade

HANOI, Nov 19 (Reuters) US President George W Bush kept up the pressure today for Asian allies to push North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons in talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao that covered trade differences.

''China is a very important nation, and the United States believes strongly that by working together, we can help solve problems, such as North Korea and Iran,'' Bush told Hu in a meeting on the margins of the 21-nation Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Hu did not mention North Korea in his remarks, but Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in the talks that Hu called for ''wisdom and patience'' in dealing with Pyongyang, whose Oct 9 nuclear test and July missile launches stunned Asia.

Bush stressed the need for UN member states to comply with a UN Security Council that banned trade of goods and transfer of funds to the North that could aid its nuclear arms programmes.

The Chinese side expressed some caution about the resolution.

''We don't really think that sanctions are the purpose, rather it is the means. The U.N. Security (Council) resolution should not be randomly interpreted and should not be expanded,'' Liu said.

Later in the day, Bush was due to meet Russian President Valdimir Putin.

Bush has been holding separate meetings with the leaders of of the four other countries involved in negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear programmes -- South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.

APEC leaders were expected to endorse on Sunday an early resumption of those talks -- stalled for a year but due to resume soon -- which Beijing is hosting.

NUDGE ON TRADE Bush is under pressure from American manufacturers to increase exports to China. The United States' year-to-date trade deficit with China reached 166.3 billion dollar in September and was likely to easily outrun last year's record of 202 billion dollar.

Bush gave Hu a nudge on the subject saying the wide amount of commerce between the two nations meant that trade disputes were inevitable but that they could be addressed in a ''spirit of mutual respect and a desire to work through our problems for the common good of our peoples''.

''I strongly support your vision of encouraging your country to become a nation of consumers and not savers,'' Bush said, and added that this would benefit US manufacturers and farmers.

Hu, speaking before Bush and anticipating his concerns, said he wanted to share some good news and cited US statistics that showed US exports to China jumped 35 per cent in the first seven months of the year.

''Actually our trade has ... been expanding quite rapidly,'' Hu said.

Liu said Bush did not raise, as the US side typically does, American determination that China should have a flexible, market-based currency.

Both leaders went out of their way to praise the current state of US-Chinese relations.

Stepping up the pressure on Vietnam over religious freedom, Bush began his day by attending a church service with his wife, Laura, at Hanoi's ornate cathedral.

The United States had dropped Vietnam from its list of nations that severely violate religious freedom ahead of Bush's visit, citing improvement in its tolerance for religious expression.

But Bush said on Friday it remained a subject of concern.

''A whole society is a society that welcomes basic freedom and there is no more basic freedom than the freedom to worship as you see fit,'' Bush told reporters after attending the packed service.

He urged governments around the world to ''feel comfortable'' with letting their citizens worship in their own ways.

REUTERS SSC ND1218