India and China today held high- level comprehensive dialogue on a host of financial

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issues to identify areas of convergence to step up their cooperation in the international and bilateral economic spheres.

The talks between the delegations headed by India's Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla and Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao were held in the backdrop of tense stand off between the two countries over denial of visa to Indian Army's Northern Command Chief, Lt General BS Jaswal, to join the military delegation for talks with defence officials here.

The Chinese move prompted India to put on hold all defence exchanges between the two countries.

Today dialogue on financial issues is the fourth round. It is being held every year as part of new diplomatic architecture to enhance strategic cooperation on trust between the two countries.

Zhu in his welcome remarks to the Indian delegation said global economy faced a lot of unstable factors and uncertainties even though it started stabilising and recovering from the global financial crisis.

"In the face of common serious challenges it is important to strengthen our cooperation in the financial areas between China and India. This will be beneficial to the economic development of the two countries."

The financial dialogue is very important as it focussed on national economic situation of the two countries which were trying to generate quality growth. "Also it focuses on how to better the coordination of the policy stance of the two countries in important global economic and financial affairs," he said.

Chawla said the perception that global economic gravity shifted to Asia, especially India and China brings satisfaction as well as sense of responsibility.

"While the two are collaborating in a number of areas including climate change, agriculture, water resources, energy security, environmental tourism, IT in various bilateral and multilateral fora, there exists considerable scope for enhanced engagement in the economics sphere," he said.

He also said as a result of stepped cooperation in the field of trade, the bilateral trade reached USD 44 billion last year and already crossed USD 20 billion in the first five months of this year to reach the target of USD 60 billion set for this year.

The Indian delegation which comprised high-level officials from the Finance Ministry and the RBI also held talks with Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren during a dinner hosted by him.