If one prospect disturbs the US even more than China?s economic rise, it must be the fear of being left out of the complex web of preferential trade deals that are springing up in its wake between countries all over Asia.

Marcus Noland at the Institute for International Economics in Washington, said: ?The [Bush] administration must be concerned that east Asia in general, and north-east Asia in particular, will develop in a way that excludes the US.?