WASHINGTON - The United States and China should cooperate to bring their trade relationship into balance and not complicate the situation by taking a confrontational approach, a senior Chinese official said on Tuesday.

US Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson (L) and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi (R) shake hands before the beginning of the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue in Washington, May 22, 2007. [Reuters]

"Problems and contradictions emerging in the development of China-US trade and economic relations should be taken calmly and handled properly," Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said. "Politicizing trade and economic issues is absolutely unacceptable since it is of no help at all but will make the situation more complicated."

Wu spoke at the start of the US-China strategic economic dialogue, a high-level government-to-government forum aimed at finding long-term solutions to trade and economic irritants between the two countries.

The meeting, held twice a year, is taking place against the backdrop of increasing frustration in the US Congress over the country's huge trade deficit with China and the slow pace of Chinese currency reform.

Wu argued that much of the trade friction stemmed from macroeconomic problems in the United States and China that have fueled the huge imbalance in trade.

"We should not easily blame the other side for our own domestic problems, or even force one's own will by imposing pressure on and confronting with the other side," Wu said. "Against the ever-deepened economic globalization today, confrontation does no good at all to problem solving."