US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner speaks at a media briefing with the US-China Business Council in Washington May 3, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - The United States is building cooperative bilateral ties with China on a broad range of economic issues and the two sides have great room for deepening the important relationship, US Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner said Tuesday ahead of a high-level bilateral dialogue.

China has scored remarkable economic achievements with a rise of confidence in the past decades, and is making headway in shifting its economic growth mode, Geithner said at a discussion hosted by the US-China Business Council.

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Both countries "have a lot of common interests" and could further deepen cooperation in a broad host of sectors including energy and environmental protection issues, he said ahead of the upcoming third round of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue on May 9-10 in Washington.

Geithner also said both sides have made a lot of progress in strengthening the relationship over the last two years, and the United States looks forward to welcoming the Chinese delegation next week and to discussing how both sides could best build on that progress.

This dialogue mechanism was established upon an agreement reached between Chinese President Hu Jintao and his US counterpart Barack Obama during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 London summit in April 2009.

The first round of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue was held in Washington in July of 2009, while the second round was held in Beijing in May of 2010.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday China hopes the upcoming round of dialogue will increase mutual understanding, promote mutual trust and advance bilateral cooperation.