(Adds U.S. official's comment, paragraph 6)
WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - China and the United States have the basis for an agreement at next month's G20 summit on setting targets to cut trade imbalances, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing an adviser to China's central bank.
Li Daokui, a member of the central bank's monetary policy committee and professor at Tsinghua University, said there had been "good progress" at last week's meeting of Group of 20 finance leaders in South Korea, the newspaper said.
Those talks had moved debate from the "surface issue" of nominal exchange rates to "talking about the substance of rebalancing world trade," he told the FT.
"I was very encouraged by the G20 meeting," Li was quoted as saying. "It is now possible for the two governments and other governments to have a good understanding."
G20 leaders will meet in Seoul next month.
An Obama administration official declined comment on the possibility of an agreement on targets at next month's meeting but added "active discussions are still under way with G20 counterparts about measures to curb trade imbalances."
Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called on G20 countries to commit to specific targets for reducing current account imbalances. The proposal, laid out in a letter seen by Reuters, received only modest support and several countries objected to the idea.
Geithner traveled to China on Sunday to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and discuss "important bilateral economic matters," a senior Treasury official said.