China and the United States agreed on Tuesday to cooperate more on security and crackdown on illegal migrants during meetings between visiting U.S. Homeland Security chief and Chinese leadership.

"Our discussions have produced very good and productive results," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told reporters Tuesday afternoon at the end of his three-day China visit.

This was Chertoff's first visit to China as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which was established in January 2003 in response to the Sept.11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"During Chertoff's visit, China and the United States reached important consensus on stepping up cooperation in such fields as combating terrorism and illegal immigration," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

Echoing Liu's comment, Chertoff characterized his China visit as "very positive."

During his stay in Beijing, Chertoff met with Luo Gan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee.

He also held talks with senior officials of Chinese departments ranging from foreign affairs and civil aviation to public security and justice.

According to Liu, the two sides exchanged views on a wide range of issues, covering fighting the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces, arresting and repatriating suspects, security cooperation for the Olympic Games, air police cooperation and law enforcement training.

"We've reached a meeting of the minds and a common approach on the issue of repatriation of illegal migrants with China," Chertoff said, adding a specific deal will come out soon.

Liu said China will confirm identities of those Chinese detained in the United States before working on their repatriation.

"China and the United States would strike hard the illegal immigration organizers and take measures to speed up the repatriation of illegal immigrants," the spokesman said.

Apart from joint efforts on illegal immigrants, Chertoff said the United States and China will also deepen cooperation on security concerning port, sea and aviation.

As a significant amount of containers entering the United States came from China, Chertoff said, "So it's critical for us to have a relationship with China that elevates the security of the movement of those containers."

"We've come close to completing, and we'll probably complete in the next couple of weeks, a significant agreement on air security which will benefit both countries," Chertoff said.

China and the United States also agreed on exchanging information on security technologies.

"The more information we get, the more able we are to do the screening and inspection at the early stage of the security process. Both countries have vested and strong interests," Chertoff said.

The two sides would also conduct effective exchanges and cooperation on border management and preventing and combating fake visa and passport.

"We reached agreements on matters of common interests and could take some big steps along the path of continuing U.S.-China law-enforcement cooperation," Chertoff said.

Source: Xinhua