Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen left Washington last night after a three-day visit which, he said, had brought a great improvement to Sino-US relations.
But speaking after a 50-minute meeting with US President Bill Clinton, it appeared the sides had still not set a date or final agenda for this autumn's Sino-US summit.
Despite hailing the meeting a success, Mr Qian said several points of disagreement needed to be resolved if the summit between Mr Clinton and President Jiang Zemin was to be a success.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang said: 'After this visit, Mr Qian has the impression that both China and the United States are ready to make their bilateral relations more healthy and positive.' But he said Mr Qian had told the US President of three areas which needed to be resolved in the run-up to the November summit - China's long-delayed entry to the World Trade Organisation, unconditional renewal of its Most Favoured Nation trading status and further co-operation on nuclear energy.
Mr Shen maintained that the issue of Hong Kong was 'not discussed in depth'.
Mr Clinton used the meeting to tell China's senior diplomat that the two sides should overcome their differences in order to ensure Mr Jiang's state visit made substantial progress.