(Updates with end of talks; agreements announced) By Steve Gorman YORBA LINDA, Calif., Sept. 16 (Reuters) - China has agreed to lift a bird flu-related ban on U.S. imports of poultry products from six states but remains closed to all imports of U.S. beef, U.S. trade officials said on Tuesday. The breakthrough on poultry products, as well as an agreement to convene in-depth technical talks on the impasse over beef, were announced at the end of high-level U.S.-China talks at the Richard Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California. China also agreed to adhere to a more streamlined process by which U.S. makers of medical devices obtain approval for imports of their products to China and to step up efforts to prevent contamination of its own pharmaceutical exports, U.S. officials said. The two sides further pledged closer cooperation on steps to combat piracy of intellectual property and the sale counterfeit goods in China. The lifting of restrictions on U.S. poultry imports from six states -- New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, West Virginia, Rhode Island and Nebraska -- takes effect immediately, said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer. But the ban will remain in place for now against poultry products from two other states -- Arkansas and Virginia. For some of those states, China's poultry import ban has been in effect for years. China imposed the bans in states where a "low-pathogenic" strain of avian influenza, or bird flu, was detected -- a restriction that U.S. officials said runs contrary to the standards of world agricultural authorities. The so-called "low-path" bird flu strains are widely seen as posing no threat to public health because they cannot be transmitted to humans, the officials said. The United States exported $600 million in poultry products to China during the past year. HEALTH-CARE PRODUCTS But U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said two of the most significant agreements pertained to trade in health-care products -- accords to clamp down on tainted drugs exported from China and to follow simpler procedures for testing of U.S. medical products bound for China. U.S. exports of medical devices last year totaled roughly $860 million. Taken as a whole, the various agreements are especially important in light of the current economic slowdown and turmoil rattling financial markets, Gutierrez said. With China heavily invested in the United States, Beijing has a great stake in the success of the U.S. economy, he said, adding that Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, leader of Beijing's delegation, "wants to make sure that our trading relationship is on firm ground and firm footing." "There's no question that added a bit of an extra push, and extra sense of urgency ... to the meeting," Gutierrez told reporters at the end of the daylong talks. China has become the third-largest export market for U.S. goods, taking in a record $65.2 billion last year. But imports from China jumped to a record $321.5 billion over the same period, rattling U.S. manufacturers and prompting calls from Congress for the White House to take a tougher stance against "unfair" China trade. In another favorable development for U.S. business expansion in China, Beijing announced over the weekend a 50 percent reduction in the amount of capital required for foreign companies to enter China's huge telecommunications market. But a big breakthrough on the touchy issue of U.S. beef imports alluded negotiators at the talks in Yorba Linda, an annual forum known as the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. Like many countries, China closed its market to U.S. beef after the first case of mad cow disease was found in the United States in December 2003. The Bush administration hailed China's conditional agreement in April 2006 to reopen its market but more than two years later, that still hasn't happened. U.S. officials said two sides agreed to a new round of technical discussions on beef safety in the near future. (Additional reporting by Doug Palmer in Washington; Editing by Eric Beech)
Children suffering from HIV/AIDS participate in an AIDS awareness rally in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh September 13, 2008. According to the latest UNAIDS fact sheet on India states, about ...
