The report, launched by Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd on Sunday, rated US sovereign debt as more risky than China's.

"We found the economic fundamentals in the major economies... had big problems given that growth in their economy and fiscal income were negative while their debts were growing rapidly," chairman Guan Jianzhong told AFP.

"Moreover, the factors that could enable them to change the fundamentals are not very evident in the foreseeable future," he said.

The report came as China is seeking more influence over world economic policy.

Beijing has repeatedly called for an alternative to the Western agencies, which were blamed for underestimating credit risks that led to the global financial crisis in 2008.

At last month's G20 summit in Toronto, Chinese President Hu Jintao urged "an objective, fair, reasonable and uniform method and standard for sovereign credit ratings" that can better reflect a country's economic strength.

The United States and 17 other nations including Canada, Britain, and France got lower marks from Dagong than from the three US-based credit rating giants Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's.

Meanwhile, nine developing countries including China, Russia and Brazil, received higher ratings from Dagong than from the US agencies.

"The outlook of China's fundamentals is good and its debt ratio is not very high," Guan said.

He also added that China's foreign exchange reserves were the world's largest and said he expected the company's report would greatly reduce China's future borrowing costs.

Dagong rated the local-currency sovereign credit risk for the United States AA with a negative outlook, below the agency's top AAA rating, while China received AA+ with a stable outlook, according to a list on the company's website.

"China is now a creditor nation but its investment and borrowing plans are ... pending (ratings by) a debtor nation such as the United States because its voice was not heard for a long time," Guan said.

A Dagong statement said it was intent on "breaking the monopoly" of the Western agencies. Guan added it hoped to help prevent future debt crises by aligning the use of global credit with countries' ability to pay back debt.

China is the largest holder of US treasury bonds, with 900.2 billion dollars' worth as of the end of April, according to US official figures.

Dagong was founded in 1994. Guan said the company is private, with no connection to the Chinese government.

earlier related report
China's property prices slow in June
Beijing (AFP) July 12, 2010 - Property prices in China rose at a slower pace in June from a month ago, government data showed Monday, in a further sign that Beijing's efforts to cool the sizzling real estate market were kicking in.

Housing prices in 70 major cities rose 11.4 percent year-on-year in June, the National Bureau of Statistics said on its website, down from the 12.4 percent rise seen in the previous month.

The figure hit 12.8 percent in April, the biggest on-year rise for a single month since July 2005, when the survey was widened to 70 cities from 35.

The prices in June fell by 0.1 percent from May, official data showed, the first month-on-month decline since March last year, according to experts.

"This is a turning point of the overall property price trend," Yang Hongxu, a Shanghai-based analyst with E-House China R&D Institute, told AFP.

"The decline will continue for several months once the trend is consolidated -- probably lasting into the end of this year or the beginning of next year," he said.

Chinese authorities have issued a slew of measures in recent months as they seek to prevent the property market overheating and causing a bubble that could derail the world's third-largest economy.

The authorities have so far tightened restrictions nationwide on advance sales of new developments, introduced curbs on loans for third home purchases and raised minimum down-payments for second homes.

Alan Chiang, residential market head at property consultancy DTZ China, said the government could refrain from introducing more tightening measures in the short term pending market sentiment in the second half of the year.

Chinese media reports have said a property tax could be imposed on a trial basis in Beijing, Shanghai, the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing and the southern city of Shenzhen.

Qin Hong, a senior researcher at the housing ministry, said China would impose the tax "at an appropriate time" as a "long-term measure" to regulate the sector, the official Securities Times reported Monday.

China currently has no such levy on residential property but does impose a 1.2 percent tax on 70-90 percent of the value of commercial real estate.

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