Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal met in Jedda on Wednesday with visiting Chinese Mideast envoy Sun Bigan on bilateral ties and the implementation of a UN resolution on ceasefire in Lebanon.

 

Sun said that China was satisfied with the rapid development of bilateral ties, and China was willing to work with Saudi Arabia to implement consensus reached by President Hu Jintao and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz on deepening cooperation in various fields.

 

Al-Faisal, for his part, said that the kingdom has a strong political will to develop its relationship with China.

 

On the situation in Lebanon, Sun said that China was ready to work with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries to help implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 in a bid to ensure Lebanon's stability and reconstruction process.

 

The Saudi foreign minister said that Arab countries would exert all-out efforts to help implement the resolution, adding that the international community should help the Lebanese government to control the whole of the country as soon as possible, strengthen the status of the Lebanese armed forces and push forward the reconstruction process after a ceasefire between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel went into effect on Monday.

 

He also praised China's efforts to help defuse the Israel-Lebanon tension, expressing hope that China would play a bigger role in forming an expanded UN force in Lebanon and Lebanon's reconstruction process.

 

Sun left for home Wednesday evening. He previously visited Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Israel and Egypt.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2006)