Beijing (PTI): China and the United States on Friday officially signed an agreement to set up a military hotline between the defence departments of both countries, in a reflection of the improving Sino-American security ties.

The hotline, the first of its kind Beijing has ever established with any country at the defence ministry level, would enable Chinese and the US defence and military leaders to remain in constant touch on major issues of common concern, specially in emergencies.

The agreement was signed at the end of a working meeting between the two defence departments in Shanghai as a follow-up to the announcement on the hotline made by both countries during the visit of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to China in November last year.

Both sides had said earlier that the hotline would "reduce the risk of misunderstanding".

Since Chinese President Hu Jintao and his US counterpart George W Bush agreed to advance bilateral military relations during their meeting in April 2006, discussions were on to set up a military hotline, official Xinhua news agency reported.

At the Shanghai meeting, the two sides also signed an agreement on launching military archives cooperation to find out US military personnel missing in the Korean war, but did not disclose the details of both the agreements, it said.