Meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, exceeded the expectations of Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, who said on Friday they had engaged in a "real discussion" on substantive issues.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (L) speaks with China's President Hu Jintao during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing September 22, 2006. [Reuters]

Paulson did discuss the issue of China's currency valuation directly with President Hu, alongside other issues including intellectual property and financial sector liberalisation. 

He said he was "encouraged" by the meeting with the Chinese president and a separate discussion with Premier Wen in Beijing. "For me, because I think I had realistic expectations, this broke to the high side," he said.

He saidd the meetings were not formalities.

"We have all seen pre-arranged minuets," he said. "These two leaders knew their stuff and there was a real discussion."

Paulson's goal for his visit - his first since leaving his post as head of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, for the US Treasury - was to set up a process that would allow the two countries to tackle issues arising from China's growing strength as a world power, rather than to come home with a specific political or economic policy win. His chosen method was a semi-annual dialogue held between top-level officials to discuss long-term concerns.

While Paulson has repeatedly warned against expecting immediate results from the talks this week, the Treasury secretary said the meetings were "substantive, unscripted and spontaneous".

A senior US administration official said Paulson was "fully cognisant that he will be judged on results" and in particular on whether the new strategic economic dialogue with China he announced on Wednesday helped the two sides work through their differences.

"This is going to take a little bit of time," the official said. "But as he [Paulson] said at his press conference on Wednesday, he is not someone who is famous for being patient."

The official said the US Treasury secretary would try to explain his strategy to Congress on his return home.

"We have a challenge of educating people about this," he said, adding "we are all aware there will be criticism" of Paulson for returning without any specific policy commitments from China.

Paulson said there were few, if any, issues on which the two sides disagreed in principle. "Where there is discussion is on the timing," he said. The US wants China to move faster towards currency flexibility and to accelerate broader reform programme.

No previous US Treasury secretary has had a full meeting with China's president, and other meetings between Hu and US leaders have tended to focus on geopolitical issues.

Clark Randt, the US ambassador, said Hu was now "directly involved" in the US-China economic dialogue.

President Hu praised Paulson for his "positive contributions to exchanges and co-operation between our two countries in the economic and financial field."

"China will make joint efforts with the United States to expand common interests, respect and address each other's concerns to push forward the China-US constructive partnership," Hu was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency.