``Despite the fact that the cold war is over, the issue of international stability has yet to be resolved,'' Ambassador Li Zhaoxing said yesterday. ``So two countries as important as China and America still have a common responsibility and have a lot to do together,'' he added.

China recently chaired a Geneva meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which condemned the May nuclear tests. Beijing, meanwhile, has also agreed not to devalue its currency in order to prevent another Asian wave of falling currencies.

Li's comments at a news conference came two weeks before President Bill Clinton is to visit China and a day after the President defended his upcoming trip.

Clinton said on Thursday that his visit is ``the right thing to do for our country,'' and he promised to pressChinese President Jiang Zemin on human rights, environmental problems, weapons proliferation, crime and drug trafficking, and open trade.

Clinton doesn't plan to meet dissidents or their families, however. Li said the White House, sensitive to Chinese feelings, never made such a request.Clinton's five-city journey, from June 25 to July 3, will be the first visit to China by an American President since the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. It comes just eight months after Jiang visited Washington. The reciprocal US-China meeting is aimed at maintaining momentum in building upon the ``constructive strategic partnership'' the two leaders agreed to last October.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported today that intelligence reports indicate that for the past two years, China's military has used US-made satellites, sold solely for civilian uses, to send messages to Army posts across the vast nation.

The United States has barred American companies from selling any militaryequipment to the Chinese since the crackdown on pro-democracy students in 1989, and the United States has publicly said that satellites sold to Chinese-linked companies were being used only for civilian purposes.

Yet, The Times said, classified reports provide evidence that China's Army has gained advantage from the decisions by the administrations of both President Bill Clinton and former President George Bush to encourage the sale of satellite technology.

The intelligence reports were contained in a document put together last year by Pentagon officials and then distributed to hundreds of officials at the White House and State Department, the newspaper said.

However, the Chinese Ambassador offered fresh assurances that his nation has only peaceful and prosperous ambitions. ``China is pursuing a peaceful foreign policy,'' Li said. ``China presents no threat to any country at all.''

Still, the United States and China have much to disagree on.

For years, China assisted Pakistan's nuclear developmentand transferred missiles and missile technology to it despite US objections. It says it has stopped those practices but has refused to sign an international agreement that would bar such missile transfers.