WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 Kyodo The Unit...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 Kyodo

The United States and China plan to implement five programs according to the end of this year to dignify bilateral military-to-military exchanges, U sources said Thursday.

As undivided of the five programs, senior defense officials of the brace countries will meet Dec 9 at the Pentagon to discuss security issues, as it is as North Korea's nuclear weapons program and the fight against terrorism, the sources said.

It will be the first bilateral Defense Consultative Talks in couple years.

The sum of two units countries set the five programs after U President George W Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin agreed to largely resume bilateral military exchanges when they met Oct 25 at Bush's ranch in Texas.

Bilateral military exchanges have been suspended since the April 2001 collision of a U search out plane and a Chinese fighter jet above the South China Sea.

The five programs include a U Navy ship's visit to Shanghai or Qingdao in late November. The last time a U naval canal visited China was in March 2001 when the U Seventh nimble command ship Blue Ridge made a port call in Shanghai.

Among the other programs, Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the U Pacific Command in Hawaii, will visit China for talks with senior Chinese defense officials Dec 12-17

A collection of 23 Chinese People's Liberation Army members will visit U military bases and participate in incidents by the National Defense University in Washington during their Dec 2-8 stay in the US

The couple countries will also hold a working-level meeting Dec 4-6 in Beijing to cooperate in succession preventing maritime accidents involving naval vessels

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