Egypt attaches great importance to Chinese President Hu Jintao's imminent visit to Egypt and expects the visit will further widen and deepen its relations with China, said Egyptian Ambassador Ali El-Hefny on Saturday.

Ambassador Hefny told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that President Hu's visit, his first official trip to Africa as the Chinese president, will continue the personal relations between the top leaders of both nations.

"Egypt and China have been the two good partners in history. We share a lot of similarities in respect of history, culture, development and foreign policy," Ambassador Hefny said, adding that the two countries adopt similar orientation towards world affairs.

"We give high priority to peace, stability and security around the world, and especially in their two sensitive parts of the world," the ambassador noted.

China and Egypt, as two major developing countries, forged their diplomatic ties in 1956 and Egyptian President Muhammed Hosni Mubarak has visited China seven times since 1976, when he was the vice president.

Trade ties and economic cooperation contributed a lot to the sound development of bilateral ties, especially in recent years.

Statistics from the Chinese Customs show that trade between the two nations reached US$1.29 billion in 2003, up 15.4 percent year-on-year.

Chinese imports from Egypt amounted to US$153 million, surged by 66.4 percent year-on-year in 2003, figures show.

Both governments have exerted efforts in enhancing trade relations and new products were exchanged between the Egyptian and Chinese markets, Hefny noted.

"With the remarkable progress of the two nations' economies and on the diversified base of their exports," he said, "the rapid increase in trade volume is expected to continue in the coming years as well."

As a major tourism destination, the ambassador added, Egypt welcomes more and more people from China to visit the country, which possesses over 60 percent of the world's relics and sites of historical interest.

China allowed its citizens to visit Egypt through travel agency in January 2002 and the number of Chinese tourists totaled 15,000 in the year.

"That is a relatively small number as compared to Egypt's huge potential," Hefny said, acknowledging that the number of Chinese tourists to Egypt grew by 15 percent in 2003 despite the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the war in Iraq.

"As a people with a long history and a distinguished cultural heritage, the Chinese people have a deep sense of appreciation for Egyptian ancient treasures," said the ambassador, who has resided in Beijing for about two years.

"I hope that cultural exhibitions to be held in China on Egypt's historic and contemporary culture will wet the Chinese people's appetite to visit Egypt in the future," he told Xinhua in the embassy, which was built approximately half a century ago and "similar to a luxury five-star hotel at that time".

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2004)