"President Hu also stressed China's resolve to push forward (foreign) exchange reform is unswerving," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said after Hu and Obama met just prior to the start of a G20 summit in Seoul.
"The reform will need a very sound external environment and can only be implemented in an incremental process," Ma told reporters, throwing the onus on the United States to avoid any instability in the world economy.
According to Chinese television news, Hu also told Obama that Beijing was "paying attention to the quantitative easing policy" -a $600 billion stimulus shot by the Federal Reserve that has sparked worldwide concern.
"US policies should take into account the interests of emerging market countries and developing countries," Hu said, according to the bulletin on state TV.
US officials said the 80-minute bilateral meeting was dominated by divisions over exchange rate policy and the need to improve the atmosphere of the broader Sino-US relationship ahead of a visit by Hu to Washington in January.
Washington has become increasingly impatient with China's so-far limited efforts to allow the value of its yuan currency to rise. US officials say the unit's value is kept artificially low to boost Chinese exports.
But Beijing has hit back by leading global criticism of the Fed's renewal of quantitative easing, arguing Washington is risking the global recovery in its own search for growth by flooding vulnerable emerging economies with new money.
The argument has roiled the G20 summit, with Beijing pushing for the group to monitor policy shifts by the US central bank, and the United States wanting action to trim the bloated trade surpluses of exporters such as China.
But in a brief photo-op that was open to reporters, Hu told Obama that China was ready to work with Washington to "increase dialogue, exchanges and cooperation", and said he hoped his US visit would be a success.
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