SINGAPORE -- Vice President George Bush Wednesday wound up wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew that included regional security, Singapore officials said.
Bush leaves Thursday for the rest of an Asian tour that will take him to Peking for an attempt to patch up relations battered by U.S. military equipment sales to Taiwan.
Bush and Lee met for 90 minutes of talks that officials said included the world economy and Soviet expansionism in Southeast Asia.
'The talks were friendy and there was understanding on both sides of the urgent need for greater U.S. commitment in the area in the light of increased Soviet activity in Vietnam and Cambodia,' one official said.
Earlier Bush told an audience of American businessmen the United States was determined to remain a Pacific power and that U.S. naval forces in the Pacific would be strengthened.
He also predicted a 'remarkable and rapid decrease in interest rates' if the administration and Congress can agree on a bipartisan program to cut the federal deficit.
Bush defended the Reagan economic policy and pointed to a decrease in inflation as the key to a strong economic recovery.
'When the recovery begins i thing you are going to see a dramatic recovery because it will be a recovery much less afflicted by inflation,' he said.
Bush did not comment on his hastily arranged trip to China, but U.S. officials in Peking said he would arrive May 5 for a five-day state visit.
After a two-day rest in the ancient coastal capital of Hangzhou, Bush is scheduled for three days of meetings with Chinese leaders in Peking.
Bushs press secretary, Peter Teeley, said the vice president saw the trip, arranged only this week, as 'a sign to the Chinese that we are obvously very interested in their concerns.'
Chief among those concerns was the recent sale of $60 million worth of U.S. military equipment to Taiwan which Peking considers an unliberated province of China.
An embassy spokesman said 'the purpose of the vice presidents visit is not to resolve the issue in one stroke, but to contribute to an atmosphere of greater understanding of both sides in order for a resolution to be achieved.'
Bush will be the highest level official of the Reagan administration to travel to China.
