Politics > WHouse visit by China's Hu canceled due to Katrina

Thousands of Americans are feared dead in the Gulf Coast region where Katrina struck and tens of thousands are stranded, many with inadequate food and supplies. Bush has pledged to fix a much-criticized federal relief effort.

"Both presidents agreed that, in the present circumstances, it was best not to have a meeting in Washington next week," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement.

McClellan said the leaders agreed during a phone call to reschedule the September 7 meeting to another time.

The summit between Bush and Hu was not planned as a full state visit, but it was to have included such formalities as an arrival ceremony on the White House lawn and a 21-gun salute.

It would have been the first U.S. visit by Hu, 62, since he became president in 2003, and would have followed a stormy summer in bilateral trade ties as China and America wrangled over energy, textiles and China's exchange rate policy.

The White House said Bush and Hu will meet on the margins of an annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, which runs from September 13-16.

Derek Mitchell, a former Pentagon official now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that the Chinese had pressed for a full state visit that would have included an official dinner and "might actually be relieved" at the change.

Textile talks aimed at hammering out at a deal before Hu's visit ended in failure in Beijing, and Washington slapped extra curbs on shipments of clothing from China.

The fourth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, involving the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China, is scheduled to resume the week of September 12 in Beijing after a five-week recess.

"There was a lot that made this visit look anti-climactic," Mitchell said, adding that for Bush, there would have been political problems arising from the visit.

"The White House didn't want to have the visual of this pomp and circumstance when there's national tragedy going on," he said.

Hu's itinerary had also included other stops in the United States, including a visit to Yale University in Connecticut and the technology hub of Seattle. The Chinese Embassy said all of the U.S. stops were canceled but plans to go to Mexico and Canada were still on.

China has offered the United States $5 million in aid for the hurricane victims. In the phone call with Bush, Hu offered sympathy for Americans "who are faced with a difficult time of severe natural disaster," the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said.

2005-09-04