WASHINGTON – The United States has offered to help China with advice and expertise on preventing politically motivated attacks during the Beijing Olympics in 2008, a joint statement said at the weekend.
The United States made the offer during two days of talks in Washington between counterterrorism experts.
"The United States offered to provide expert advice and assistance on event security, in anticipation of the 2008 Olympics being held in Beijing. There will be a number of expert-level dialogues on this and other subjects between the two countries in the coming months," it said.
The United States hosted the winter Olympics in February 2002. More than 16,000 people provided security and more than $US310 million ($NZ637.07 million) in combined federal, state and local monies went toward ensuring the games were safe, according to media reports at the time.
Talks on Thursday and Friday were the second in a series agreed when President George W Bush visited Shanghai last October, after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The US side is led by State Department counterterrorism coordinator Francis Taylor and the Chinese side by Li Baodong, director-general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's international department.
"Both sides agreed that very encouraging progress has been made in the fight against terrorism, and recognised that much remains to be done," the joint statement said.
- NZPA
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