Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, making a much-anticipated appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said China was confident of maintaining rapid growth and made a veiled attack on the United States over monetary discipline.

Li, who many expect to take over from Premier Wen Jiabao, stressed the importance of multilateralism but called on the "global reserve currency issuers" to be more accountable. He did not name the United States, but the US dollar is the biggest reserve currency.

"Accountability and discipline on the part of global reserve currency issuers should be strengthened," he told political and business leaders at the forum.

Li said there remained "many uncertainties" in the global and domestic economies.

"We will maintain continuity and stability of our macro-economic policies, continue to follow a proactive fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary policy and make our policies better targeted and more flexible in response to new circumstances," Li said.

China has been under fire for keeping its yuan currency weak against the dollar and maintaining a huge trade surplus -- 196.1 billion dollars in 2009.

In a speech to the Davos forum on Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a veiled attack against China, saying festering trade imbalances were harming economic recovery.

Li did not refer to trade imbalances however.

He stuck to the prospects of China's economy, which grew 8.7 percent in 2009, saying that "we are confident that we can ... maintain the steady and fast growth of the Chinese economy."

The red-hot growth rate has raised inflation fears which have already forced Beijing to cut bank lending to deter a consumer splurge on cars and property.

Li reiterated Beijing's commitment to counter inflation.

"We will endeavour to raise the quality and efficiency of growth and take effective measures to fend off potential risks," he added.

He said that to fuel future growth, Beijing will look to expand domestic consumption.

In 2009, domestic sales grew 15.5 percent, Li pointed out, saying it made a "significant contribution" to overall growth.

Chinese demand could "lift Chinese economic growth and provide a huge market to the world," he noted.

Li also warned that while the global economic climate has improved, the "storm has not subsided."

"We have to continue working together like passengers on a same boat," he said, calling on countries to continue cooperating as they did during the financial crisis.

Davos was the biggest international speech given by the 54-year-old Li, a rising member of the Communist party politburo who has been vice premier for two years. Wen Jiabao's term as premier ends in 2013.

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