strategic partnership between the United States and China," said a joint statement, issued after the first Sino-U.S. summit in eight years. Jiang's U.S. visit, lasting from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3, was the first state visit by a Chinese president in 12 years. The joint statement said the partnership could be built "through increasing cooperation to meet international challenges and promote peace and development in the world." It did not elaborate. The United States has been seeking China's cooperation on a range of issues, including halting the sale of cruise missiles to and nuclear cooperation with Iran and wooing North Korea to the negotiating table with South Korea. The new partnership would be China's third with a major power. During a visit to Moscow in April, Jiang and Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a declaration outlining their version of the post-Cold War world, hailed as a partnership aimed at strategic cooperation. Qian said the forging of a Sino-U.S. partnership did not mean the two giants would be "friends" or "allies" free from contradiction. The statement said the United States and China "have major differences on the question of human rights... (but) also have great potential for cooperation in maintaining global and regional peace and stability... preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." The partnership would serve as a foundation for them to conduct negotiations based on mutual respect and equality. The statement said the two sides would cooperate to combat drug trafficking, international organised crime and terrorism. The two would strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation in economic development, trade, law, environmental protection, energy, science and technology, education and culture and engage in military exchanges. Addressing a state banquet in the evening, Jiang invoked 19th century American poet Henry Longfellow to underscore the importance of the Sino-U.S. alliance. "Longfellow once wrote that to act that each tomorrow finds us farther than today. Act, act in the living present," Jiang said. "We should go along with the trend of the times and respond to the will of the people and continue our march forward toward the establishment and development of a constructive strategic partnership between our two countries."