BEIJING - Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi concluded a series of talks with China's highest leaders today, saying he was confident bilateral relations would continue to strengthen after he takes his country's top job in October.

"There are certainly some advantages that I come (to China) before I assume the post of the prime minister," Badawi told journalists.

"They made arrangements for me to see the top leaders... I can hear them, I can know what their expectations are and I wanted to know if they had any particular expectations in terms of the bilateral relations."

On Monday, Badawi met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Huang Ju and held meetings Tuesday with President Hu Jintao and parliamentary head Wu Bangguo.

The veteran of 38 years in Malaysian politics is slated to take over from outspoken leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad in October.

Bilateral relations

In talks with Wen, both sides agreed that bilateral trade between the two countries should reach US$20 billion a year in the coming years, Badawi said.

He did not say whether he discussed the controversial issue of the valuation of the Chinese yuan during his talks and refused to say the peg of the yuan to the US dollar was harming Malaysian exports.

"We have to expand good bilateral relations and I certainly must say that our trade relations with China has brought a lot benefits to us in many ways in spite of the fact that they have been pegging the RMB (Chinese yuan)," he said.

China was not complaining about Malaysia's peg of the ringgit to the dollar, so Badawi said he was not about to complain about the Chinese peg.

"I don't think I should comment, China would be in the best position to decide what needs to be done with the RMB," he said.

China has recently come under tremendous pressure from the United States to revalue the yuan, which Washington believes is significantly undervalued and is hurting US manufacturers.

On this week's collapse of World Trade Organization trade talks in Cancun, Mexico, Badawi said that it was another example of ongoing trade disputes between developed and developing nations.

"The WTO has always been a forum for a battle between developed and developing countries, if there are more talks the battle will go on," he said. - AFP