US Treasury Secretary John Snow was visiting Shanghai Wednesday to urge the Chinese authorities to speed up reform of the country's financial market.

"It's clear the potential of the financial sector to play a larger role in the economy is enormous," Snow said when he visited the Shanghai Stock Exchange, adding that he would continue to press for more progress towards a more flexible, market-driven exchange rate.

Apart from the stock exchange, he visited a new office for foreign exchange trading in Shanghai. He also met financial market leaders based in the city as well as representatives of the American businesses operating in the region.

Commenting on the trade surplus between China and the US, Snow admitted that trade protectionism on the rise in the US would pose a serious problem to the US economy.

He will head to Beijing for the G20 meeting after a brief visit to the inland city of Chengdu in western China.

(China Daily October 13, 2005)