No concessions

Still, Geither sent a reassuring message to Congress in his statement, urging China to adopt "a more market-oriented exchange rate" to balance the US trade deficit with China, which totaled $226.8 billion last year.

Zhou Shijian, a senior researcher at the Center for US-China Relations at Tsinghua University, said that the delay is not a cancellation, and the US will press China at every stage, drawing support from its allies at international meetings.

According to an online poll on huanqiu.com Monday, more than 93.5 percent of the 1,604 respondents believed the US delaying publication of the currency report only marks an adjustment of tactics, which by no means represents that the US is making a concession on its stance.

He Weiwen, managing director of the China Society for WTO Studies, expects China to make some adjustment on its currency policy, and the White House also wishes to see some domestic "variables" in the upcoming three months, such as growth in exports to China, a declining unemployment rate, increasing profits in manufacturing and a recovering economy, which could weaken pressure from Congress on the yuan issue.

The US unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in March, down from its October high of 10.1 percent, indicating economic recovery, the US Labor Department reported Friday.

A report by China's Ministry of Commerce, scheduled to be released April 10, is expected to register a global trade deficit in March, the first since April 2004, which is expected to be seen as proof to defend China's stance on its current currency policy.

Shi, however, argued that a substantial divergence between China and the US still remains.

"After experiencing a rapid downturn in recent months, we should become more clear-minded of Obama's policy toward China," Shi said.

Yin Hang and agencies contributed to this story