U.S. Treasury's Paulson to visit Beijing next week

WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson next week visits Beijing, where he will deliver a speech on energy and environmental issues and meet Chinese economic officials.

Paulson arrives in Beijing on April 1 and will remain through April 3 before returning to Washington.

China's premier, Wen Jiabao, said last week he was deeply concerned about the potential economic fallout for the global economy from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis.

In addition, the falling value of the U.S. dollar has pushed up costs of imported oil, which is priced in dollars, and complicated China's efforts to keep inflation in check.

The Bush administration has been pressing China to lets its currency, the yuan, rise in value more rapidly. While it has strengthened significantly against the dollar over the past two years, U.S. manufacturers say it needs to rise more in order to end what they perceive as an unfair advantage Chinese exporters enjoy in U.S. markets. (Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by Dan Grebler)