The United States and China agreed civil aviation and financial sector access deals yesterday but made no headway on Chinese currency reform.
US lawmakers said they would move ahead with proposals to impose tariffs on Chinese imports because of Beijing's reluctance to redress the huge trade imbalance between the economic giants with a revaluation of the yuan.
The anger in Congress overshadowed US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's claim of "tangible results" in the second leg of a "strategic economic dialogue" with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi.
Ms Wu said the "complicated" relations between Washington and Beijing needed careful handling and warned against retaliatory steps.
"It [China] calls for direct consultation and dialogue between us, instead of easy resort to threat or sanctions," Wu said after two days of closed-door talks with Bush administration officials.
The most concrete outcome of the talks was a deal committing China to remove a bar on new foreign securities firms and resume issuing licences for securities companies, including joint ventures, in the second half of 2007.
The two sides also agreed on a new aviation pact that US transportation officials said would more than double the number of passenger flights between the two countries by 2012.