考博英语复习：阅读理解（四）

嘎嘣脆

Reading Passage 4

　　Trade, N. Korea top Hu's agenda

　　SYDNEY, Australia （CN*） -- Chinese President Hu Jintao has arrived in Australia for a four-day visit with talks on trade and North Korea high on the agenda.

　　Hu was greeted Wednesday morning at Sydney airport by Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who thanked him for his key role in attempting to defuse the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang.

　　“I thanked him for the very constructive role that China is playing, and we'll have an opportunity when he's in Australia later this week to have a further discussion,” Howard said Wednesday after Hu's arrival.

　　“China remains the key player,” he said.

　　Australia is keen to forge closer economic and political ties with China, which is already a major trading partner.

　　Hu will attend a lunch hosted by Australia's official head of state, Governor-General Michael Jeffery, Wednesday then meet with Australian business leaders in Sydney Thursday morning.

　　Australia will be hoping to build on the success of last year's $17.5 billion deal to supply China with liquefied natural gas, and win contracts related to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

　　But the main prize is a free trade deal with Asia's emerging economic powerhouse.

　　Already two-way trade between the nations is worth around $15 billion a year, with Australia primarily exporting energy and raw commodities, such as iron ore, and importing low-cost manufactured goods.

　　Hu and Howard will sign a number of trade agreements on Friday in Canberra, with media tipping one of those will be a deal to begin a feasibility study into a bilateral free trade pact.

　　The Australian newspaper Wednesday quoted Canberra sources as saying such a study would take up to two years but that there was “a genuine willingness” on China's part to bolster economic and trade links between the two nations.

　　Australia is also hoping to strike a similar deal with the United States and to pull off both deals by the end of the decade would be considered a crowning achievement for the Howard government.

　　Hu is scheduled to address a joint sitting of the Australian parliament on Friday, one day after U.S. President George W. Bush does the same.

　　The two visits have prompted a security clampdown in the national capital, although the leaders' paths will not cross during their time in Australia.

　　Canberra protests are expected for Hu's visit from supporters of the Falun Gong movement, Free Tibet activists and critics of China's human rights record.