"Both men should be in office for nearly four years to come. And so their capacity to work effectively with each other and to guide their governments to work effectively with each other is an issue of great significance." he said.

The professor said he also thought that the meeting laid out an ambitious set of issues for future cooperation between the two countries.

"I think that will set off a revolution in US-China relations toward having a relationship play a more significant role in addressing global issues and having global issues play a more significant role in shaping the US-China relationship. So I think this meeting was quite forward-looking," the scholar said.

Lieberthal served as a special assistant to the US president for national security affairs and was a senior director for Asia on the National Security Council from August 1998 to October 2000 during the Clinton administration.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2009)