The US Trade Representative's chief mainland specialist, Robert Cassidy, was in Beijing yesterday meeting with officials on the mainland's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), officials said.

``Robert Cassidy began talks with the Chinese on Monday and is continuing to hold talks today,'' a US embassy spokesman said yesterday.

Officials at the mainland's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation confirmed the talks, but refused to comment on the contents of discussion.

The talks come days before a meeting between presidents Jiang Zemin and Bill Clinton on the sidelines of the Asian Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in New Zealand on Saturday.

The two leaders are expected to work out a deal which will get China into the WTO before the end of the year and in time for Beijing to participate in the next round of WTO trade liberalisation talks scheduled for next year.

The mainland broke off its bilateral negotiations on the WTO with the US following the 7 May Nato bombing of its embassy in Yugoslavia.

Washington and Beijing came close to striking a deal on the WTO when Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji unveiled a surprisingly generous package of concessions during his April visit to the US.

The US side hesitated at the time but now looks favourably on the proposals, Western diplomats said. One said because the package had been turned down previously, the two sides would have to ``fine-tune it and repackage it'' as a matter of protocol.

``Zhu's proposal was a good proposal, there were a lot of good things in there,'' he said, echoing the prevailing view among Western economists.

``If I had to bet, then I would say that China will get in by the end of the year.''

After the Nato bombing, mainland officials rejected a US summary of Mr Zhu's package as inaccurate and indicated it had been retracted.

But a Western trade negotiator on the mainland quoted Beijing's top WTO negotiator, Long Yongtu, as saying in recent days that the offer was basically still stood.

In Melbourne, a senior official travelling with President Jiang said yesterday ties with the US were improving, but he was guarded about the mainland's prospects of gaining WTO entry this year.

``Sino-US relations are improving,'' deputy trade minister Sun Zhenyu said in Melbourne, the first stop on Mr Jiang's six-day state visit to Australia.