China agrees on need for yuan flexibility-Paulson

BEIJING (Reuters) - China agrees with the United States on the need for further yuan flexibility, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday.

He said the yuan's CNY=CFXS 20 percent rise since July 2005 marked real progress.

"Continued progress and flexibility is important, and the Chinese side agrees," Paulson told a news conference after the fifth round of the cabinet-level Sino-American "Strategic Economic Dialogue."

He said Chinese ministers had been very cooperative in the search for a consensus on how to tackle the global financial crisis and again praised Beijing for its responsible reaction to the turmoil.

"We very much applaud the actions that China's taken in terms of its stimulus plan," Paulson said.

White House economic adviser Dan Price said both the United States and China were committed to reaching a framework agreement in the World Trade Organisation's long-running Doha round of market-opening talks by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley and Glenn Somerville; Writing by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Ken Wills)