China's Hu New York pit stop

Hu met with New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said afterwards the Chinese leader was 'charming'

NEW YORK -- Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, the man tipped to become the next leader of the world's most populous nation, has wrapped up a busy day in New York ahead of his state visit to Washington this week.

On Monday the 59-year-old Hu started his first official visit to the United States, meeting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and visiting the city's major stock exchange.

Hu, who has been described by the media as secretive and mysterious, rarely travels abroad.

Vice president since 1998, Hu is expected to succeed President Jiang Zemin as head of the Communist Party this year and become China's president in 2003.

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The official of the communist-ruled country opened his tour of the Big Apple by visiting Wall Street, where he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, marking the start of the day's trading.

He then traveled a few blocks across Manhattan's financial district to bow at the site where the World Trade Center's twin towers stood until they were toppled by hijacked airliners.

Traveling in a motorcade of 17 limousines, vans and police cars, he raced to United Nations headquarters, where he met Annan.

Modern China

Hu spent about half an hour with Annan in his 38th floor office at the U.N. headquarters, a meeting described by a U.N. spokesman as "warm and cordial."

The two reportedly shared a common view of the Mideast conflict, which is that it cannot be settled through violence.

The leaders also shared a vision of a more modern China, according to media reports, where Hu shared his government's "vision of China's modernization drive."

China is one of five permanent, veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council and Hu voiced China's "full support" for the organization, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

At "Ground Zero" and at the United Nations, a handful of supporters of China's banned Falun Gong spiritual group protested, some with a banner reading, "Stop suppressing Falun Gong."

Hu spent some time with Annan

Falun Gong representatives say as many as 150,000 practitioners have been detained or sent to forced labor camps or mental hospitals without trial since the group was banned as an "evil cult" in July 1999.

Hu also met with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said afterwards the Chinese leader was "charming."

He is due to head to Washington to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney later in the week.