China and the United States will set up a working group on cyber security, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said. John Kerry who was on an official visit to China said in Beijing that the two countries had agreed on the need to speed up action on cyber security, an area that Washington says is its top national security concern.

Kerry said “Cybersecurity affects the financial sector, banks, financial transactions, every aspect of nations in modern times are affected by the use of cybernetworking and obviously all of us—every nation—has an interest in protecting its people, protecting its rights, protecting its infrastructure”.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly told Kerry in their meeting that China and the United States should make joint efforts to safeguard cyberspace.

Beijing and Washington have traded accusations in recent months of massive cyber intrusions. The United States says hacking attacks emanating from China have targeted US Government and corporate computer networks among others, stealing government and commercial data.

A US computer security firm released a report in February saying a secretive Chinese military unit is believed to be behind a wave of hacking attacks against the United States. China claims it is the victim of large-scale cyber attacks from the United States, though it has given few details.