Visiting Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao said in Tehran Saturday that China is willing to increase coordination with Iran in regional and international affairs with an aim to safeguard the interests of Third World countries.

At a meeting with former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hu said that China and Iran hold identical or similar views on many major international and regional issues.

China wants to develop a long-term and stable friendship with Iran on the basis of five principles of peaceful coexistence and through a joint effort with Tehran, said Hu. An enriched and expanded bilateral relationship will benefit peoples of two countries in the new century, Hu added.

Rafsanjani, who now chairs Iran's powerful State Expediency Council, pointed out that Iran and China are two countries very friendly to each other. They used to show sympathy and render support to each other at hard times; now they help each other in economic construction and often exchange views on international affairs, he said.

The two countries have the common aspiration to develop an all-round cooperation, he added.

In an earlier meeting with Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) Speaker Mahdi Karrubi, Hu said exchanges between the parliaments of the two countries have played an important role in furthering the bilateral relations.

Echoing Hu's view, Karrubi said the Majlis attaches great importance to the development of relations with China's National People's Congress.

He said China is a great country which plays an important role in the world's political affairs and Iran values its ties with China.

The Chinese vice president began his five-day visit to Iran on Friday.

(Xinhua 01/07/2001)