China and the United States on Tuesday held defense talks at vice-minister level, a sign of bilateral efforts to continue improving ties between the two armed forces.

"China-U.S. military ties have progressed steadily as the overall relations between the two countries have enjoyed a sound development," People's Liberation Army (PLA) Deputy Chief of Staff General Ge Zhenfeng told U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Christopher Henry.

Ge appreciated Henry's efforts to explain to China the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which was released by Pentagon in February.

The 92-page QDR report said China had "the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States and field disruptive military technologies that over time offset traditional US military advantages."

Over the past year, U.S.-China military relations had "improved greatly", Henry was quoted as saying in a statement released by China's Defense Ministry late Tuesday.

China-U.S. military ties were broken off in 2001 when a Chinese fighter aircraft was damaged by a U.S. surveillance plane over the South China Sea, but relations between the two forces have been improving.

Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Guo Boxiong visited the United States in July at the invitation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Guo was the highest-ranking military officer to visit the United States since 2001.

In the latest sign of closer ties, Chinese and the U.S. navy vessels conducted their first-ever offshore search and rescue exercises on Sept. 9 off California, part of the joint anti-terrorism military exercises.

Two Chinese navy vessels, the Qingdao and the Hongzehu, arrived in Pearl Harbor on Sept. 6, the first Chinese navy vessels to call on a U.S. state in six years.

In Tuesday's talks, Henry stressed the United States and China shared a lot of common ground and military ties were important.

Ge said China had always taken a positive attitude toward developing military ties with the United States.

China would like to carry out the military-related consensus between the presidents and defense heads of the two countries, Ge said.

"Let's work together to remove the obstacles in military ties," Ge said.

He urged the United States to contain Taiwan independence and not to sell advanced weaponry to Taiwan.

Henry said the United States looked forward to reinforcing the military exchanges and cooperation in an open and consultative way.

He said the United States would adhere to the one-China policy and maintain the three joint communiques between the two countries.

Henry arrived in Beijing on Monday. During his stay, he will hold discussions with experts from the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the PLA Military Academy of Sciences.

He will also visit the ancient capital of Xi'an in northeast China's Shaanxi Province before leaving China on Sunday.