The constructive and fruitful meeting between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. President George W. Bush Friday, the first ever between the two leaders, is "vital to the development of the Sino-U.S. relations" in the next period of time, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in Shanghai Friday.

The meeting between the two leaders was conducted in a friendly and candid atmosphere, which is very good, Zhu said at a press conference.

Although the world has entered the information era, the development of communications technology can never replace face-to- face exchange of views between leaders, because the face-to-face interaction involves personal emotion, Zhu quoted Jiang as saying.

The successful meeting between Jiang and Bush, during which they reached a broad scale of consensus on a series of issues and agreed to working for a constructive relations of cooperation, will be of guiding significance to the development of the bilateral relations in the new century, Zhu said.

"I'm fully confident in the future development of the Sino-U.S. relations," the spokesman said.

On the anti-terrorist issue, Zhu said both leaders agreed to establishing a medium- and long-term mechanism of cooperation on combating terrorism.

In the near future, government officials at a certain level will conduct consultations on this issue, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/19/2001)