The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology said it is discussing with its US counterpart on a series of new joint plans to address related challenges confronting the two countries, such as energy efficiency.

Although no details were given, Ma Linying, deputy director of the ministry's International Co-operation Department, said clean coal energy and hydrogen energy are the two primary sectors both countries will jointly push forward in the future.

"We are examining a huge joint project proposed by the United States, which aims to utilize clean energy technologies to generate power, produce hydrogen and sequestrate carbon dioxide," Ma said.

President George W. Bush initiated the project, called FutureGen, two years ago. It plans to collect a fund of about US$950 million to build a giant power plant with zero emission.

China Huaneng Group, the country's leading power corporation, joined the programme last month as a member of FutureGen Industrial Alliance.

The two countries' collaboration in hydrogen energy and fuel cell development is closely related to the Beijing Olympics Games in 2008, in accordance with a clean energy protocol they signed last year.

Apart from building a park that produces and delivers hydrogen, both sides also agreed to create a hybrid vehicle fleet to shuttle during the Beijing Olympic Games.

"We are particularly inspiring our academic institutes and businesses to get involved in energy development with the United States," said Ma.

Energy has always been a key area in the history of Sino-US State- level science and technology co-operation, which dates back 26 years to when the two sides signed the first official agreement in this regard.

A whole raft of joint energy programmes have been initiated in the last two years under the framework of three documents, namely the Fossil Energy Protocol, the Protocol for Co-operation in the Fields of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Technology Development and Utilization, and the Protocol for Co-operation in Clean Energy Technologies for the Beijing Olympic Games. In addition to clean energy, the two countries have also joined hands in energy efficiency building, fusion research and natural gas technology management.

Ma, who served in the United States for five years as a counsellor, commented that the United States is "among our most important partners in terms of scientific and technological development, not only in energy."

"We have established an extensive and all-around partnership also in areas like agriculture, environment, hygiene and basic science," he said.

An estimate from the ministry shows about one fourth of the ministry's annual key international co-operative projects were launched with the United States between 2001 and 2005.

These key projects have a total investment of some 100 million yuan (US$12.3 million) this year, almost quadrupled that of four years ago.