U.S. President Bill Clinton vowed on Wednesday that he will do his utmost to reach an agreement with China on its access to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and if that is done he will try to push the Congress into offering Beijing a permanent normal trading status.

"I think that it is in the long-term interests of our people," Clinton told a group of correspondents at a press conference at the White House.

He said that the entry into WTO will also benefit "an open China that is a responsible partner in a world in which China will be at some point in the 21st century, if it keeps growing, the biggest economy in the world, that they be part of the rule-based system of global trading and investment".

"So I hope that we can work it out, and I'll do my best," Clinton said.

"I do want to say that if we could work it out, I am completely committed to trying to get passed in the Congress a permanent normal trading status for China. And I do believe that we can prevail now," he added.

Clinton said that both parties in the United States have come to see the issue as "important for our nation's long-term security and economic well-being."

"I will do what I can to achieve it," he said.

The United States failed to reach an agreement with China on the WTO issue when Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji visited Washington this Spring. The debacle has ignited wide-spread criticizism from U.S. business as well as other communities outcrying for improved trade relations with China.