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China will ask the United States to protect its investment assets at the first strategic and economic dialogue next week, a Chinese finance official said Wednesday.

"I believe the Chinese delegation, especially Vice Premier Wang Qishan, will explicitly raise the hope that the United States should make responsible economic policies, including financial and monetary policies, to maintain stability of the dollar and safeguard safety of China's assets," said Zhu Guangyao, assistant Finance Minister.

Zhu made the remarks at a news briefing on the first China-U.S. strategic and economic dialogue to be held in Washington from July27 to 28.

State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Vice Premier Wang Qishan. and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasure Secretary Timothy Geithner will co-chair the dialogue.

China, the biggest holder of U.S. Treasury bonds, has raised concerns that the falling U.S. dollar could hurt the value of China's U.S. dollar assets. In March, Premier Wen Jiabao called on the United States "to guarantee the safety of China's assets."

"As an important investor, China is deeply concerned about the U.S. economic situation, and hopes the U.S. stimulus policy could make effective progress," said Zhu.

Zhu said China wants to see more stable U.S. financial market, declining fiscal deficit of U.S. government and improvement of balance sheet of Federal Reserve Bank.

China, with the world's largest foreign exchange reserves of 2.13 trillion U.S. dollars, bought 38 billion U.S. dollars worth of the bills in May, bringing the total holding to 801.5 billion U.S. dollars, according to the U.S. Treasury Department's Web site last week.

China will make investment decisions in line with three principles of investing on U.S. treasury bills: safety, liquidity and profitability, said Zhu.

When Geithner visited China in June, he said that China's U.S. dollar assets are safe.

Other topics to be discussed at the economic dialogue include Sino-U.S. cooperation on major economic issues, how to weather the financial crisis and achieve economic recovery, sustainable economic growth and balanced growth, building a strong financial system and, trade and investment.

The two countries will also discuss bilateral relations, international and regional issues, and global issues at the first China-U.S. strategic and economic dialogue, said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei.

"China hopes the strategic dialogue will help the two countries expand consensus, narrow down differences, deepen mutual trust and boost cooperation," said He.

U.S. President Barack Obama will address the opening session of the dialogue, and meet with the Chinese delegation after the dialogue, He said.

"It's imperative for the two countries to hold the strategic and economic dialogues under current circumstances and exchange views on some strategic, long-term and global issues," said He.

Source: Xinhua