"The mainland economy maintained good developmental momentum with our GDP in the first quarter rising by 10.2 per cent and import and export trade up by 25 per cent," Hu said in a meeting with Taiwan's former Kuomintang opposition leader Lien Chan.

China's economy expanded by 9.9 per cent in 2005, including 9.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

"Frankly speaking, we do not hope to pursue extreme high speed (growth), we are paying more attention to the efficiency and quality of development," Hu said.

"We are paying more attention to the transformation of the mode of growth, resource conservation, environmental protection and more importantly the improvement of the lives of the people."

The robust first quarter GDP figure comes ahead of Hu's visit to the United States this week where a growing US trade deficit that hit 202 billion dollars last year is likely to be at the top of the talks agenda.

Washington has also become increasingly impatient with Beijing for allegedly seeking to boost exports by keeping the yuan at artificially low levels, and for failing to adequately open its markets and protect intellectual property rights.

On Tuesday, the commerce ministry announced that China's trade surplus had surged 98.5 per cent in March from a year earlier to 11.19 billion dollars.