President Hu Jintao and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin pledged on Friday to expand bilateral cooperation.

After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of cooperative agreements on aviation, railway and food safety, as well as animal and plant quarantine.

Hu arrived in the Canadian capital Thursday morning on a state visit as guest of Canadian Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson.

At the welcome ceremony, Hu reviewed the rapid growth of exchanges and cooperation in the past 35 years of bilateral diplomatic ties in politics, economy, trade, energy, science, technology, education and culture, as well as fruitful bilateral cooperation on major international and regional issues.

He said the economies of the two countries are highly complementary and have vast potential for reciprocal cooperation.

To further bilateral relations also serves the requirements of the times and the aspiration of the two peoples, as the two countries are influential and shoulder major responsibilities for safeguarding world peace and promoting common development, said Hu.

He expressed confidence that under the concerted efforts from both sides, the friendship between the two peoples and bilateral cooperation will continue yielding new and rich results.

Clarkson also highlighted the flourishing bilateral relationship at the welcoming ceremony.

In their meeting after the ceremony, the two heads of state reviewed the friendship and cooperation between their countries in the past years.

Hu told Clarkson that China attaches great importance to the friendly cooperation with Canada, and his current visit is aimed at enhancing mutual trust and promoting cooperation so as to push the bilateral partnership of all-round cooperation to a new level.

This is the first visit to Canada by a Chinese head of state in eight years.

In a written speech delivered at the airport upon arrival, Hu said that "deepening and enriching the China-Canada all-round partnership serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples and contributes to the prosperity and development of the region and the world at large."

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said last month that the visit would "deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields and upgrade the all-round partnership of cooperation to a new level."

Chinese statistics show that China-Canada trade volume last year reached US$15.5 billion, a 55 per cent increase over the previous year. In the first half of 2005, the figure was US$9 billion.

(China Daily September 10, 2005)