Cui also told reporters that Hu will visit the US Midwestern business hub of Chicago, as well as Washington, during the Jan 18-21 trip.

Hu will meet Obama, senior officials and lawmakers, and will deliver a speech in Washington, Cui said, without giving details.

He said China also expects to work with the US to push forward talks on the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

On Tuesday, visiting US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Beijing that Pyongyang could have inter-continental ballistic missiles within five years, and that the country posed a direct threat to the US.

China and the US "have broad common interests and share the same goal on the Korean nuclear issue," Cui said. "Both countries believe we must protect the peace and stability of the peninsula."

Chinese Ambassador to the US Zhang Yesui said on Wednesday, during an online chat on Hu's visit, that recent events on the Korean Peninsula proved that "exerting pressure and the use of force are not helpful to resolve the problem".

Instead, he called for an urgent meeting of chief negotiators of the Six-Party Talks.

US Ambassador to Beijing Jon Huntsman on Wednesday described Hu's visit, the first state visit by a Chinese president to the US in five years, as "one of the most important visits" in the history of Sino-US relations.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former US president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, said in an article published on Jan 2 in the New York Times that Hu's visit is the most important high-level visit since Deng Xiaoping went to the US in 1979.

Analyzing why Hu chose Chicago, Da Wei said the city, the third most populous in the US, has a vibrant economy.

Hu's last state visit to the US in 2006 took him to Washington DC, Seattle and Yale University.

(China Daily January 13 2011)