According to a senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official on Wednesday, President Hu Jintao's visit to Vietnam was "successful".

Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks when briefing journalists accompanying Hu on his three-day official goodwill visit to Vietnam.

The visit coincides with the 55th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Vietnamese diplomatic ties and it was a "great event" in the history of relations between the two countries under new circumstances, Wang said.

Hu began his visit Monday as guest of General-Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nong Duc Manh and Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong.

During the visit, Hu met with Vietnamese leaders and youth group representatives, and delivered a speech to the National Assembly of Vietnam.

The two sides signed a series of cooperation documents including an economic and technical cooperation agreement, and issued a joint statement.

Summarizing the highlights of the visit, Wang said it consolidated the bilateral traditional friendship, enhanced mutual trust and helped raise good-neighborliness and friendship and overall cooperation between the two countries to a new level.

Second, Wang added, party-to-party exchanges and people-to-people friendship have been strengthened through the visit, thus consolidating the political and social basis for bilateral relations.

Third, he said, it helped create new concepts and expand new ways for cooperation, injecting new vigor into bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

And fourth, it helped address concerns properly and push forward regional cooperation, thus making contributions to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world at large.

The visit is bound to promote all-round friendship and cooperation between the two countries to higher levels, Wang said.

Hu is also General Secretary of the Central Committee of CPC.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2005)