The United States welcomes and supports efforts to improve relations across the Taiwan Strait and hopes for greater progress in the relations, the US president said.

Tibet is a part of China, and the United States will not support "Tibet independence," Obama added.

The two leaders also pledged to keep close contact and coordination with each other, and work together to settle disputes and ease tensions that may give rise to regional and global instability.

Both sides will join hands to ensure proper solutions to the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula and in Iran, humanitarian assistance in Sudan and the situation in South Asia.

The Chinese and US leaders met ahead of a Group of 20 (G20) summit on the financial crisis slated for Thursday in London.

This is the first meeting between the two heads of state since the new US administration came into office in January.

Obama has accepted an invitation from President Hu Jintao to visit China in the second half of this year.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2009)