China's gross domestic product grew by 10.2 percent in the first quarter of this year on the back of fast-paced trade growth, Chinese President Hu Jintao said in a televised speech Sunday.
"The mainland economy maintained good developmental momentum with our GDP in the first quarter rising by 10.2 percent and import and export trade up by 25 percent," Hu said in a meeting with Taiwan's former Kuomintang opposition leader Lien Chan.
China's economy expanded by 9.9 percent in 2005, including 9.9 percent 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 percent in March from a year earlier to 11.19 billion dollars.
The trade surplus for the first three months of the year was up 41.4 percent from the same period in 2005 to 23.31 billion dollars, it said.
This came on the back of booming foreign trade in March with exports rising 28.3 percent year-on-year to 78.05 billion dollars and imports growing by 21 percent to 66.86 billion dollars.
First quarter exports grew by 26.6 percent to 197.3 billion dollars, while imports were up 24.8 percent year-on-year to 174 billion dollars, the ministry said.
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