White House summit for China's Hu Jintao set for January 19

President Barack Obama will  host his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on a state visit on January 19, the White House said on Wednesday, setting the scene for a summit likely to grapple with North Korea and currency  friction.

This was the first firm date for Hu's long-planned trip.

While Beijing and Washington are likely to use the summit to cast their relationship in a positive light, Obama and Hu will have plenty of disputes to talk over, especially China's trade surplus and currency controls and its reluctance to chastise North Korea.

"President Hu's visit will highlight the importance of  expanding cooperation between the United States and China on  bilateral, regional and global issues, as well as the friendship between the peoples of our two countries," the White House said in a statement on Wednesday Washington time.

Obama wants to "continue building a partnership that advances our common interests and addresses our shared  concerns", the White House said.

Hu's visit will include a state dinner in the evening. That will be a symbolic trophy for the Chinese leader, who analysts have said wants to use his high-profile trip to  brandish his status as a statesman as he prepares to leave office from late 2012.

China has not confirmed the date of Hu's visit, only  saying that it is likely early in 2011.

Obama is likely to urge Hu to increase pressure on his ally North Korea, which triggered regional alarm by shelling a South Korean island last month and claiming fast progress in  uranium enrichment, which would give it a second pathway to making nuclear weapons.

US complaints that China keeps its yuan currency too cheap, giving it an unfair trade advantage, are also likely to feature.

But carefully negotiated summits such as this are more about nurturing understanding than scoring policy  breakthroughs, said David Lampton, professor of China studies  at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC.

"Lately, one of the biggest problems in US-China relations is that each side has had excessive expectations of what the other could conceivably deliver," Lampton wrote in an earlier  email response to questions about Hu's trip.

"If this trip can lead the two leaders to have more realistic appreciations of the limits each country faces in dealing with the other, that alone should be counted a  successful trip."

Tensions between the two Koreas have gone down a notch after South Korea held military drills this week and the North  did not act on earlier threats to hit back against the drills.

China has resisted calls from Washington and its regional allies, South Korea and Japan, to criticise and increase  pressure on Pyongyang, which relies on Beijing for economic and diplomatic backing. Beijing has instead urged all sides to return to talks.

The US trade deficit with China rose 20% in the first 10 months of 2010 and could top $270 billion for the year when final figures are in. That would pass the record of $268 billion set in 2008.

Many US lawmakers blame Beijing's currency controls for the huge deficit, although most economists say it is only one of many factors.

During Hu's visit, Beijing also wants to avoid the gaffes that marred his trip to the White House in 2006, when China's national anthem was announced as that of the "Republic of  China", or Taiwan, the island that Beijing calls an  illegitimate breakaway.

Hu also stood flustered on the White House lawn while a follower of Falun Gong, a spiritual sect banned in China, harangued him for three minutes from the press area.

China called that 2006 visit a "state visit", but the US deemed it an official visit, a less prestigious tag. The last  visit to the White House by a Chinese leader that both sides deemed a state one was by Jiang Zemin in 1997.