By DPA,
Washington : US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed during a telephone conversation Friday to closely work together to the fight off the global financial crisis, the White House said.
Obama also stressed the need to correct global trade imbalances and to take steps to get credit markets moving again, the White House said. The credit freeze is seen as the main culprit in the economic crisis.
Obama and the Democrats traditionally take stronger stands than Republicans over trade deficits suspected of hurting workers in the US.
Obama has also signalled his intentions to press Beijing over its alleged manipulation of the value of the Chinese currency. The White House did not say whether that topic came up during the first phone calls between the leaders.
They also discussed North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, counterterrorism, proliferation and climate change.