BEIJING, May 12 -- The United States administration underrates the growing economic and political power of China, former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said.

    

Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said on May 10 the United States administration underrates the growing economic and political power of China. [AFP]

"I think that at the least the United States underestimates the growing power of China. It is an immense country with energetic people which has great ambitions for itself," she told reporters in Lisbon after delivering a speech on democracy.

    "What we did while we were in office was to try to bring China into the system," said Albright, who served as Washington's top diplomat under president Bill Clinton.

    She said Washington's support for the entry of China into the World Trade Organization in 2001 was an example of this policy.

    "It is very important not to have China as an enemy and to try to bring it in as much as possible into world organizations," Albright said.

    China's gross domestic product ( GDP) has quadrupled since 1978, when the nation's leadership began moving the economy from a sluggish, Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented system.

    Measured on a purchasing power parity basis, China in 2004 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the United States, although in per capita terms the country is still rated as poor.

(Source: China Daily/Agencies)