China's President Jiang Zemin has invited US President George W Bush to visit China again and Mr Bush has accepted, the Chinese foreign ministry has announced.

It follows Mr Jiang's visit last week to Mr Bush's Texas ranch.

No dates have been given for the return trip.

Mr Jiang is due to retire from the head of the Communist Party at a party congress next month. He is expected to hand over the presidency early next year.

Friday's talks in Texas focussed on boosting Sino-US ties and the two leaders vowed to seek a peaceful resolution to the crisis that has followed North Korea's admission that it is developing nuclear arms.

Improving relations

There was less agreement on the question of Iraq.

Mr Jiang says China will not follow the US in everything

Mr Bush said China should ''support a new Security Council resolution demanding Iraq fully disarm itself of weapons of mass destruction''.

However, Mr Jiang did not say what his response had been.

The BBC's Justin Webb said the Texas meeting was a sign of faith that the US and China genuinely wanted a rapprochement after 18 months of difficulties.

Relations began to improve after China backed the US-led military response to last year's 11 September attacks.

It was announced after Friday's meeting that Vice-President Dick Cheney would visit China next year.

Mr Jiang was due back in Beijing on Tuesday afternoon after a trip which also took in the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Mexico at the weekend.

Before leaving for China after a stop-off in San Francisco, Mr Jiang thanked the Americans for their welcome.

"This afternoon I will take the friendship of the US people back to China," he said.