BEIJING - The United States will open key army, navy and air force sites to a visiting top Chinese military leader to show its desire for better military ties, a senior People's Liberation Army (PLA) officer said.

"The US side made considerate arrangements. Some sites have not accepted visiting military leaders for years," said Huang Xueping, director of the America and Oceania Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense.

The senior colonel made the remarks at a news conference on Chief of the General Staff of the PLA Chen Bingde's week-long visit to the US starting on Sunday, the first by a Chinese chief of general staff to the US in seven years.