US VICE President Joe Biden, starting a visit to China under a cloud of criticism over the US debt crisis, told his hosts today that the two nations held the key to global economic stability.

US VICE President Joe Biden, starting a visit to China under a cloud of criticism over the US debt crisis, told his hosts today that the two nations held the key to global economic stability.

Biden, 68, needs to mend America’s worsening image in China after the world’s largest economy came close to a disastrous default on its debts earlier this month and suffered a historic credit rating downgrade.

China is the biggest foreign holder of US debt and the country’s state-run media have delivered a barrage of criticism of Washington’s handling of the debt crisis, which they have described as a “ticking time bomb”.

“I am absolutely confident that the economic stability of the world rests in no small part on cooperation between the United States and China,” Biden told his counterpart Xi Jinping, who is set to succeed President Hu Jintao in 2013.

“It affects every country from your neighbour to the north, to Argentina in the southern tip of South America. It is the key, in my view, to global economic stability.”

Biden attended a welcoming ceremony at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People before holding talks with Xi, his official host in China.

The trip is aimed partly at building ties with the likely next leader of the world’s second-biggest economy, who remains virtually unknown in US policy circles.

Chinese media said the debt crisis, the value of China’s currency and US weapons sales to Taiwan - which Beijing sees as part of its territory - would be the top items on the agenda for the visit.

The official China Daily said US arms sales to the island were the “biggest source of disagreement between Washington and Beijing”.

“Any mis-step in dealing with the issue of arms sales to Taiwan may disrupt the improving relationship between the two powers,” the paper said in an editorial.

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