Mr Snow says he will press Chinese officials on their currency

Mr Snow is due to meet his Japanese counterpart on Monday before heading for Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing.

On Friday, he repeated his calls for a further rise in the value of China's yuan, which the US says is undervalued.

The currency is the source of trade tensions between the US and China, despite a limited revaluation in July.

US politicians have accused China of accumulating an excessive trade surplus by keeping the yuan below its true market value, boosting Chinese exports and threatening US jobs.

Washington is also at odds with Beijing over a massive influx of textile imports from China, which rose dramatically after a global quota system ended on 1 January this year.

The two nations have so far failed to resolve their differences on the issue, despite five rounds of bilateral talks.

Supply and demand

On Friday, Mr Snow told CNBC television that China had made "an important first step" by ending the policy of pegging the yuan to US dollar.

The currency now floats to a limited extent against a basket of currencies.

However, he added that China needed to "build on that step" and "let demand and supply in currency markets determine the value of the yuan".

Mr Snow is due to have talks with Japanese Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki on Monday night to discuss the country's reform agenda, including privatising the postal system.

On Tuesday, he will begin his Chinese tour, which includes a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 larger developing countries and rich nations next weekend.

After that, Mr Snow and US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will join senior Chinese officials for the annual meeting of the Sino-US Joint Economic Commission.

Mr Snow said on Friday he would be telling Chinese officials in person that Beijing needed to act soon to make the yuan more flexible.