New | Washington's Christmas message to Beijing: implement your planned economic reforms

The US urged China on Tuesday to quickly implement planned reforms to open up its economy and said it will keep a close eye on progress as officials work to resolve remaining trade tensions with the world's second-largest economy.

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) also said the United States would not hesitate to lodge new disputes with the World Trade Organisation if bilateral talks on a range of contentious issues from agriculture to intellectual property failed.

China, a US$450 billion market for US goods and services that has become a key source of revenue for some American companies, announced plans last month to steer its economy towards more sustainable growth and liberalise markets.

The USTR said the reforms, which aim to boost productivity and switch the focus of China's economic model from goods exports to domestic consumption and services, had much in common with the US trade agenda withChina.

"The United States shares (the reforms') goals of reducing Chinese government intervention in the economy, accelerating China's opening up to foreign goods and services, reforming China's state-owned enterprises and improving transparency and the rule of law to allow fair competition in China's market," the USTR said in a report to US lawmakers.

"The United States therefore will urge China to speedily implement these promising Third Plenum Decision economic reform elements."