SHANGHAI: Ties between China and a host of Asia-Pacific nations were reviewed and hailed yesterday in a flurry of bilateral talks yesterday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting.

When meeting the Sultan of Brunei, Haji Hassanaal Bolkiah, President Jiang Zemin expressed China's satisfaction over the expanding cooperation between the two countries.

Brunei and China co-chaired the APEC High-Level Meeting on Human Capacity Building in May in Beijing. Jiang thanked Brunei for its support during China's preparations for the APEC meetings and hoped for new contributions to the APEC process from it.

During his talks with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Jiang noted that bilateral ties have showed fine momentum for rapid development, highlighting cooperation in political, economic, educational, scientific, cultural and judicial fields.

China attaches importance to its ties with Canada and is working towards strengthening cooperation, Jiang said.

Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, who is attending his first APEC leaders' gathering, said he looked upon this visit as an opportunity to strengthen relations with China.

Jiang told Toledo that China expects economic and trade cooperations between the two countries will make new progress under the joint efforts of governments and enterprises of both countries.

Leaders also discussed this year's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, which is taking over the weekend.

Leaders also discussed this year's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, which is taking place over the weekend.

Both Jiang and Canadian Prime Minister Chretien expressed the hope that the weekend's meeting will promote the APEC cooperative process.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard told Jiang that after the terrorist attacks on the US, the gathering must work to restore people's confidence in global economic development and boost the world economy.

Jiang replied by saying that as important members, China and Australia share many common interests in cooperation in the APEC. He added China stands willing to further push the APEC cooperation process together with Australia.

Jiang also told Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad that China hopes to strengthen the capacity of APEC economies to meet the challenges of globalization and the New Economy.

This year's APEC leaders' meeting is more significant under the current conditions since leaders will not only discuss APEC's own agenda but will also talk about anti-terrorism, said Mahathir.

(China Daily 10/21/2001)