Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Sunday that it proved to be a right decision for Iran to choose China as a partner of enhancing cooperation.

At a meeting with visiting Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, Khatami said Iran and China, two ancient countries known for their great civilizations, have a long history of friendly exchanges between them, pointing out that they still share a lot of common interests today.

Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Khatami said, Iran has been seeking to develop friendly relations with other countries in the world. Tehran is pleased to see that the consensus in favor of developing Iran-China cooperation reached between leaders of the two countries is being materialized step by step, the president said.

Hu recalled that during Khatami's visit to China in June last year, the top leaders of the two countries agreed that China and Iran should further their relations for the sake of peace and development.

The top leaders also reached consensus on cooperation in various fields. Hu said his on-going visit is just designed to see the agreement points materialized and level of cooperation improved.

On the notion of dialog between civilizations which was initiated by Khatami, Hu said it will be conducive to the deepening of mutual understanding and cementing friendship and cooperation among peoples in the world.

The diversity of the world civilizations should be recognized and dialog and exchanges between civilizations should be encouraged, Hu pointed out.

In another meeting with Iranian Vice President Mohammad Hashemi earlier Sunday, Hu said the two countries should further expand their economic and trade cooperation, particularly in the areas of transportation, energy and telecommunications.

Both Hu and Hashemi, who is the chairman of the Iranian side of the two countries' joint commission on economic and trade affairs, highlighted the importance of the commission in boosting the Sino- Iranian economic and trade cooperation, adding they are confident of closer economic and trade ties between the two countries.

Hu is on the third day of his five-day visit to Iran. He is scheduled to leave for the central historic city of Isfahan Monday.

(Xinhua 01/08/2001)