Li Peng, Chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, left New York Friday night for a five-nation visit after attending the three-day Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments held at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York.

Li will visit Iceland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Russia starting from Saturday, where he will meet parliament and government leaders and people from all walks of life to deepen mutual understanding and trust, and stimulate healthy and steady relations with these countries.

During his stay in New York, Li made a speech at the Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments, expounding on China's stance on international cooperation. He met with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and leaders of Inter-Parliamentary Union and parliamentarian chiefs from varied countries.

The Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments, jointly organized by the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, was aimed to express support for international cooperation and to enshrine a commitment at the highest level by parliaments to work much more closely with the United Nations system and other major international negotiating fora both nationally and globally through their world organization, the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The conference concluded Friday afternoon with the adoption of a declaration which highlighted the main challenges facing the world community and the United Nations in the 21st century, described changes in international relations and outlined the national, regional and international parliamentary dimensions of international cooperation.

(Xinhua 09/2/2000)