U.S. President Barack Obama will press Chinese President Hu Jintao on Beijing's policies on currency and human rights when the two meet at the White House in two weeks, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.

Mr. Gibbs, appearing hours after confirming he will step down as White House press secretary next month, said the U.S. continues to believe that China must take steps to allow its currency, the yuan, to continue to appreciate.

"China plays an enormously important role in our global economy, and China has to take steps to rebalance its currency," Mr. Gibbs said.

The comment cames a day after Mr. Obama joined a high-level meeting between U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in which the U.S. officials stressed the need for the two economic powers to reduce their trade imbalances.

Separately, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Jiang Yaoping said in Beijing on Wednesday that yuan appreciation won't resolve the U.S.'s trade imbalance with China, as the exchange rate has little effect on the major cause of China's trade surplus: the import of materials used in goods that are then exported.

The meeting between Messrs. Hu and Obama is seen as key to maintaining the relationship between the two countries at a time of some tension over trade and human-rights issues. Mr. Gibbs said human rights, currency, and simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula are all anticipated to be on the agenda when Mr. Hu visits the White House on Jan. 19.

China's trade surplus is a result of globalization, not global economic imbalances, Mr. Jiang said at a forum, adding that global companies in industries such as electronics that conduct processing trade in China benefit from the trade surplus.

Processing trade refers to the import of duty-free materials that are strictly for re-export in finished goods.

A Ministry of Commerce official said Wednesday that China's 2010 trade surplus will be slightly above $190 billion. In the January-November period, China's trade surplus fell 3.9% from a year earlier to $170 billion, according to the customs bureau. China's trade surplus in 2009 was $196.07 billion.

The yuan has risen 3.2% against the dollar since June 19, when China pledged to increase exchange-rate flexibility, effectively ending a two-year-long peg to the dollar.