Hu says China will stick to its own yuan path

BEIJING, April 13 (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao told U.S. President Barack Obama that Beijing would firmly stick to its own path for reforming the yuan's exchange rate, focusing on China's economic and social development needs.

Hu said that yuan appreciation would neither balance Sino-U.S. trade, nor solve the U.S. unemployment problem, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday in an account of a bilateral meeting that took place in Washington on Monday.

Hu also said that China does not seek a trade surplus with the United States and would like to increase its imports from the United States, the report added.

To that end, Hu urged the United States to loosen its export controls over high-tech products. (Reporting by Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Ken Wills)