China and the United States, concluding two days of high-level economic talks, announced Wednesday that they would step up their cooperation on energy and the environment and also try to negotiate a new treaty to ban discriminatory practices that block foreign investments in both countries. Talks, however, to produce the investment accord, which administration officials hailed as the major achievement of the meeting this week, could slip into next year and might have to be completed by the next American president. After two days of discussions at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., there were no major breakthroughs to ease frictions over trade, currency, food and product safety and other issues between the United States and China. But the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., hailed the session as positive. “Our discussions have gained momentum, leading to progress on a number of fronts this week and creating a foundation for timely progress going forward,” Paulson said at the Treasury Department here, after returning midday from the Naval Academy. He said he expected to hold the fifth in a series of these meetings, which he started at the end of 2006, in December in China. But by then the presidential election will be over, complicating whatever ceremonies the Chinese are likely to have. Although the Chinese delegation was welcomed by President Bush at the White House, many experts say that one reason the Chinese have been slow to respond to American pressure this year is that they may be waiting to make concessions on trade and finance issues until a new administration takes office. Leading Democrats are already warning the administration not to conclude any new arrangements for investment safeguards and trade that could tie a future administration's hands. They also criticized the administration for not pushing China harder on trade issues. The Chinese praised the session in Annapolis as positive. Wang Qishan, the vice premier who is China's chief envoy in the economic talks, called the talks a “complete success” and said the so-called strategic economic dialogue should continue, a comment that Paulson and his aides appreciated. Paulson began the talks with China two years ago, shortly after he left Goldman Sachs to join the Bush administration. He has led delegations of Cabinet members twice in China and twice in the United States, and he said at a briefing Wednesday that he hoped the next president would continue the process. One measure of the dialogue's success, Paulson said this week, was that China has allowed its currency, the yuan, to appreciate more than 20 percent since mid-2005. __
