Hu was seen off at the Ulan Bator international airport by Mongolian President Nachagyn Bagabandy and other senior officials.

During his stay in Mongolia, Hu held separate meetings with Mongolian leaders and delivered a speech at the State Great Hural (parliament).

On Wednesday, the Chinese president held wide-ranging talks with Bagabandy. The two leaders had an in-depth exchange of views on ways to further develop the friendly relations and cooperation between China and Mongolia and on the current international and regional situation, and reached consensus on the topics they discussed.

The two sides agreed to establish and develop the China-Mongolia partnership of good-neighborliness and mutual trust and promote the China-Mongolia friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation in an all-round way.

On Thursday, the Chinese president met separately with chairman of the State Great Hural Sanjibeghz Tumurochir and Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar.

In his address to the State Great Hural, Hu said the two sides agreed on the importance of political mutual trust and mutually beneficial economic cooperation between the two countries.

On Wednesday, Hu and Bagabandy attended a signing ceremony for cooperation documents, including an accord on bilateral economic and technological cooperation between the two countries.

In a joint declaration issued at the end of Hu's visit, China and Mongolia pledged to carry on the tradition of frequent exchanges of visits and contacts between the top leaders of the two countries and make great efforts to expand mutually beneficialand reciprocal economic and trade cooperation between the two sides.

Hu arrived here from Kazakhstan, where he also paid a state visit. Earlier, the Chinese president visited Russia, where he attended the Third Summit Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member nations and celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the city of St. Petersburg.

Hu also attended an informal South-North leaders dialogue meeting in the French city of Evian.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2003)