London  - US President Barack Obama and Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao moved Wednesday to lay aside a recent round of tensions between Washington and Beijing by committing themselves to working together to combat the global recession.

"The two sides agreed to work together to build a positive, cooperative, and comprehensive US-China relationship for the 21st century and to maintain and strengthen exchanges at all levels," Obama and Hu said in a joint statement following talks in London.

Obama also accepted an invitation from Hu to visit China in the second half of the year with the two leaders also announcing the opening up a new dialogue between the world's biggest economy and Asia's powerhouse economy.

On the thorny subject of human rights, the Obama-Hu statement said the two sides agreed to resume dialogue as soon as possible.

The meeting between Obama and Hu followed a call from Beijing last week for the creation of a new international reserve currency to replace the dollar.

At the same time, China has expressed concerns about the impact of Washington's massive financial rescue plans on Beijing's huge dollar reserves.

China's call for a new world currency reserve came amid signs that leading emerging economies have sought to use the current crisis to lay down a challenge to the dollar's domination of the world economy.

However, Hu and Obama agreed to establish what Beijing and Washington called the US-China strategic and economic dialogue, which is to be chaired by top US and Chinese officials including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan will chair the so-called economic track of the dialogue program. The first round of the dialogue is set to be held in Washington DC in the coming months.

Coming ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 big economic powers, the Chinese and US leaders gave their support to plans for sweeping changes to the rules governing the international financial system.

As part of its agenda for the G20 summit, China is also seeking to boost its influence at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But in exchange Washington and other G20 states say the Chinese will have to beef up their contribution to the IMF budget.

Obama and Hu also agreed to take steps to further deepen cooperation in a wide range of areas, including economy and trade, counterterrorism, technology, education, culture and health as well as expanding consultation on non-proliferation, their statement said.

As well, the two nations are planning to improve their military relations along with seeking to reduce tensions that contribute to global and regional instability, including the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the Iranian nuclear issue, Sudan humanitarian issues, and the situation in South Asia. (dpa)