U.S. cabinet chiefs in China next week on energy trip

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Energy Secretary Steven Chu will travel together to China next week to boost U.S. clean technology exports, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday.

"As China confronts climate change, there will be opportunities for American green technology companies to fill a critical need, creating jobs here and helping to curb pollution in China -- a win-win for both counties," Locke said in a statement announcing the July 14-17 trip.

China is the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for global climate change, although its per capita emissions are still far less than in the United States. Both countries are major players in U.N. talks aimed at reaching a new climate pact by the end of the year in Copenhagen.

Locke, a former governor of Washington state with close ties to China, told Reuters earlier this year that he hoped to travel to China with Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and former director of the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory.

Both are the first Chinese-Americans to hold their current jobs.

"Clean energy will drive the economy of the future, both in the United States and around the world," Chu said.

"Working together, we can accomplish more than acting alone. It's in our interest and China's to explore ways to cooperate for our mutual benefit - by promoting renewable energy, encouraging energy efficiency and cutting pollution," Chu said.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Vicki Allen)