The full plate reflects the extent of US-Australian cooperation on important international issues including Iraq and Afghanistan, where "Australia has been a stalwart partner," according to a senior US official who requested anonymity.

The two leaders were also to discuss the fate of Australian "Taliban" David Hicks, who was captured in 2001 in Afghanistan and faces an imminent military trial, the official told AFP.

Bush and Howard, who met in the Oval Office ahead of a joint press conference scheduled for 11:50 am (1550 GMT), were to expected to focus on relations with Beijing and the role China plays in the region.

"They will discuss China, Australian relations with China, US relations with China, and how we all relate to one another" on trade and security issues such as efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, the official said.

Australia is not a party to the six-country talks on Pyongyang's atomic ambitions but "has been supportive of" the US-led proliferation security initiative that aims to choke off illicit technology transfers, the official said.

Bush and Howard's discussion of ties with China came amid renewed tensions over Beijing's threats to use military force against Taiwan if it believes the island is moving toward declaring its independence.

At the Pentagon on Monday, Howard joined US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in condemning remarks by a top Chinese general who warned that China would use nuclear weapons if the US military intervened in Taiwan.

Howard told reporters that the remarks were "irresponsible and I couldn't believe that they represent the views of the government."

Howard said that while China's military and economic might is growing, he believed Beijing understood that "military conflict of any kind is not conducive to their leading longer term goals."

Under the ANZUS (Australia-New Zealand-United States) treaty, each country is obliged to support the other in the event of an attack, and Australia could be expected to back the United States if China resorted to force over Taiwan.

But Howard has said Australia's close ties with China and the United States placed it in a position to lobby both sides for peace.

"We see ourselves as having a role in continually identifying, and advocating to each, the shared strategic interests these great powers have in regional peace and prosperity," he said when tensions over Taiwan rose earlier this year.

China is one of Australia's most important trading partners, and the two countries are currently discussing a free trade agreement.

As a leading light in the "Cairns group" of agricultural exporters, Australia has been in the vanguard of calls for trade liberalization, especially in farming produce.

That has contrasted with the apparent reluctance of the United States and the European Union to go dramatically further in scrapping their own generous subsidies to their farmers.

Howard left for the United States on Friday with a pledge to send 150 elite troops to Afghanistan ahead of September elections there.

Howard, who also has some 900 soldiers in Iraq, has dismissed suggestions in the wake of the July 7 London bombings that the new deployment announced Wednesday could put Australia at greater risk of a terror attack.

"If you imagine you can buy immunity from fanatics by curling yourself in a ball and apologising to the world for who you are; not only is that morally bankrupt, it's also ineffective," he said.

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