The Chinese foreign minister on Saturday described President Hu Jintao's trip to the United States to attend four important summits as a significant and far-reaching diplomatic move.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi made the remarks while briefing journalists who traveled to New York and Pittsburgh with Hu.

Yang said that the four summits in the US that Hu participated in focused on such attention-grabbing issues as the international financial crisis, climate change, non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

Those issues have a significant bearing on international relations and on the global situation in the future, Yang said. He said those issues also have a direct bearing on China's long-term development and fundamental interests.

Participating in four summits in as many days was an unprecedented diplomatic move by a Chinese president since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Yang said.

He said Hu systematically advanced China's viewpoints and stances on important global and regional issues during the four summits.

Yang highlighted the 64th United Nations General Assembly, which drew more than 140 heads of state and government, and the world body's general debate during which Hu delivered his key-note speech "Join hands to create the future."

The foreign minister quoted Hu as saying that the world is undergoing a hectic period of big development and reform and that it is seeing a stronger trend toward peace, development and cooperation.

Hu pointed out during his UN speech that the world's peace and development is faced with serious challenges resulting from instability and uncertainty in the global situation.

The Chinese president urged the international community to cherish the concepts of peace, development, cooperation, win-win and tolerance in their effort to promote a lasting peace, co-prosperity and a harmonious world.

Yang said Hu proposed that the international community view the security issue through a broader view-finder, conduct cooperation with more open hearts, and materialize harmonious co-existence via a more tolerant mentality.

Hu stressed in his speech that China's destiny is increasingly linked with that of the entire world. He said that China will stick to its path of peaceful development, one that leads to mutual benefits and a win-win scenario. He said China also will stick to the five principles of peaceful co-existence while pursuing friendly cooperation with all of the other countries in the world.

China was, is and will remain a strength to be reckoned with in the maintenance of world peace and in the promotion of co-development of the world.

As a responsible big country in the midst of development, China has performed its obligation to the UN Millennium Declaration by extending assistance to more than 120 countries. It also has written off debts owed it by 49 heavily indebted countries and least developed countries, and is offering zero-tariff treatment to exports from 40 least developed countries.

China also will beef up its support for the developing countries that have been affected most by the international financial crisis.

Hu said that China will continue its support to the developing nations by speeding up their growth to meet their millennium goals; China will continue to give the assistance promised to African countries during the Sino-Africa Summit; and China will continue to participate and promote the regional monetary and financial cooperation.

Yang, who accompanied Hu to New York and Pittsburgh, said that the world sees the Chinese president's speech at the UN as commanding a strategic viewpoint and carrying a far-reaching connotation.

Hu's speech demonstrated that China is playing an irreplaceable role in international and regional affairs as a builder of international systems, Yang said. He said that the international community welcomes China to play an even larger role on the international stage.

At the UN non-proliferation and disarmament summit, Hu advanced his statement on the new security concept that China advocates.

It was the first time in the past decade that a Chinese leader elaborated on China's policy toward nuclear issues in person at a multilateral occasion.

Yang quoted Hu as saying that China has always advocated a total ban and total destruction of nuclear weapons. Hu said China will stick to its self-defense nuclear strategy and to its promise not to be the first to ever resort to nuclear weapons under any circumstance.

China has also obliged itself to not threaten nuclear-free countries and regions with the use of nuclear weapons.

Hu told the non-proliferation and disarmament summit that China will continue to promote the process of international nuclear disarmament and to contribute efforts toward the system safeguarding the implementation of the non-proliferation treaty.

This approach, Hu said, has fully demonstrated China's fairness, responsibility and contribution toward the construction of a nuclear-free world, which reflected the legitimate claim by the developing countries, safeguarded the interests of the developing countries and helped to move the non-proliferation and disarmament talks to a more positive direction of development.

Yang described the G20 summit as an effective platform on which the international community can cooperate in its joint dealings with the ongoing international financial and economic crises to better governance of the global economy.