Chinese President Jiang Zemin has expressed hope that his current visit to the United States will improve relations between the two countries.

His stay, which began in Chicago on Tuesday, will end in a highly symbolic summit with President George W Bush.

The meeting, at Mr Bush's Texas ranch on Friday, is likely to be the last such occasion for the Chinese leader.

Mr Jiang is expected to step down as Communist Party general-secretary next month and to leave his post as head of state early next year.

His talks with the US president will include a discussion of the Iraq question and the increasingly unpredictable situation on the Korean peninsula.

Speaking at a dinner in Chicago, Mr Jiang said he was looking forward to discussing serious and important issues with Mr Bush.

After the summit, the Chinese president will travel on to Mexico to attend the attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting.

Jiang legacy

Mr Jiang arrived in Chicago with his wife and with Vice Premier Qian Qichen.

About 200 representatives of Chinese communities in the Chicago area were waiting to greet him along with the city's mayor, Richard Daley.

Both leaders are keen to make the talks a success

Mr Jiang is also scheduled to visit Houston on Wednesday and Thursday before the summit.

Chinese leaders are much given to thinking about their legacy and President Jiang is now working hard on his.

His meeting with President Bush is being portrayed in Beijing as crowning his term in power.

Chinese officials are anxious that everything should go smoothly.

Iraq issue

At the centre of the talks at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas, will be Iraq.

The US needs Chinese support in the United Nations Security Council for fresh resolutions aimed at disarming Iraq.

Officials in Beijing have said they support a two-stage approach - first, fresh access for weapons inspectors and, only if that fails, the possible use of force against Baghdad.

But the officials added that if Iraq is shown to be violating UN resolutions, then the security council must act.

That is being read as a sign that China may acquiesce to plans for a military campaign, mostly likely by abstaining in the vote.

The two presidents will also talk about North Korea's startling recent admission that it continues to run a nuclear weapons programme.

This is a prickly subject. China has been dogged for years by US accusations that it has sold nuclear technology abroad and that some of it may have found its way to North Korea.

High stakes

China denies this but both Beijing and Washington are now signalling that they want to see the North Korea question resolved through diplomacy.

Both sides have good reason to make this summit a success.

President Bush cannot afford to alienate Chinese opinion while he is looking for support on Iraq, and President Jiang is looking to burnish his final days in power.

For his part, President Jiang will also be hoping for some US recognition of China's support for the "war on terrorism".

The restoration of contacts between the US and Chinese armed forces would be a prize for China. So would the lifting of a ban on launches of US satellites in China.

Those nagging questions that bedevil Sino-US relations - the issue of Taiwan and the question of China's human rights record - will no doubt feature during the summit but they are unlikely to derail it.