The request for talks with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions was Wal-Mart's first public step in response to the union votes over the past two weeks.

Workers perform the warm-up dance during the opening ceremony of the newly opened Wal-Mart store in Shanghai in this July 28, 2005 file photo. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Thursday, August 10, 2006 it has agreed to cooperate with China's labor group in creating unions at its 60 Chinese outlets. [AP]

No date has been set for a meeting, said Li Jianming, an ACFTU spokesman. He declined to say what Wal-Mart asked to discuss.

Ye Chunxiu, district manager of the U.S.-based retail chain's Jiangsu stores, said "Wal-Mart China hopes to strengthen communication with the ACFTU and our employees. We will cooperate closely with the ACFTU in setting up trade unions in all the 60 Wal-Mart outlets in China."

Joe Hatfield, president of Wal-Mart Asia, said "I hope to establish with the ACFTU and local branches a good relationship that would be conducive for our employees and business development."

"We think it is in line with Chinese government's efforts to build a harmonious society," Hatfield added.

The Xinhua News Agency quoted the vice president of Wal-Mart China, Li Chengjie, as saying it wants to cooperate with the ACFTU "in a more effective and harmonious way."

Also Wednesday, the ACFTU warned Wal-Mart not to retaliate against workers who form unions.

The group, "led by the Communist Party of China and backed by the government, will take measures to protect these workers," Xinhua reported, paraphrasing Guo Wencai, director of the ACFTU's department of grass roots organizing.

The ACFTU has lobbied for the creation of Wal-Mart unions and had accused the company of blocking its efforts.

A letter from Wal-Mart to the ACFTU requesting talks asked for them to take place with "no media presence," Xinhua said.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., opened its first store in China in 1996 and has 28,000 Chinese employees. It has few unions elsewhere in its worldwide operations.

Unions in China represent the workforce of individual companies or stores, rather than a whole industry. All unions must be affiliated with the ACFTU.

The five Wal-Mart unions are relatively small, with about 25 to 30 members each. Three of the Wal-Mart unions are in Shenzhen, with others in the eastern city of Nanjing and in Quanzhou in the southeast.

The ACFTU says expanding its presence in private and foreign companies is one of its key goals. The group's leaders say they hope the success at Wal-Mart will boost efforts to form unions at other private companies.

About 26 percent of China's 150,000 foreign-financed companies have official labor unions, according to the ACFTU.

The group had hoped to raise that to 50 percent this year. But an ACFTU leader quoted Wednesday by state television said that after the Wal-Mart votes, it was raising that target to 60 percent.