The United States will hold the first summit with the enlarged European Union of 25 member states on Saturday and Sunday.

Following are important meetings between the two sides:

-- In February 1990, US President George Bush and Irish Prime Minister and Commissioner of the European Community (EC) Charles James Haughey declared that regular meetings would be held betweenthe US president and the EC commissioner and between US secretary of state and foreign ministers of EC members on bilateral relations and political issues.

-- In November 1990, the United States and the European Community signed the Transatlantic Declaration of 1990 to establish guidelines of development of relations, mutual goals, fields of cooperation and mechanism of consultation.

-- On Dec. 3, 1995, the United States and the European Union (EU) signed the New Transatlantic Agenda and a Joint EU-US Action Plan, establishing the relations of partnership and framework of cooperation.

-- On May 28, 1997, The United States and the EU signed agreements in The Hague, the Netherlands, on narcotics ingredients,cooperation between anti-drugs squads and customs cooperation at the EU-US summit.

-- On June 21, 1999, the United States and the EU signed in Bonn, Germany, the US-EU Summit Declaration. The two sides were committed to a full and equal partnership and agreed to build up atrade dispute prevention system.

-- On May 31, 2000, the United States and the EU held a summit in Lisbon, Portugal's capital. US President Bill Clinton promised to share with the EU the technology of US missile defense, but didnot fully remove EU misgivings.

-- On May 2, 2002, the United States and the EU held a summit in Washington on the Middle East peace process, the fight against terrorism, trade disputes, the Afghanistan issue and relations between Russia and NATO. The two sides stressed that mutual interests overweighed differences and agreed to cooperate in wide-ranging areas. But they could not make any progress in solving disputes over iron exports.

Source:Xinhua