Hu to Bush: China wants better trade balance

President Hu Jintao told his US counterpart George W. Bush that China will try to make relations between the two countries "stable, sustainable and healthy", the Chinese Foreign Ministry reported. Hu's comments, which are seen as a move to ease tensions over the Chinese trade surplus and the value of the yuan, were made in a telephone conversation with Bush on Monday night, the US Embassy in Beijing said, according to a Bloomberg report. America's trade deficit with China came to US$166 billion for January-September, almost equal to the country's deficit with Japan, Canada and Mexico combined. Speaking in London, ahead of his visit to China in December, US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson called for more foreign currency flexibility from China, Reuters reported.