China had congratulated Nepal's Constituent Assembly (CA), which had elected the country's first president and vice president, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular press conference on Tuesday.

As a good neighbor, friend and partner of Nepal, China sincerely hoped Nepal would continue its peace process and realize political stability, economic development and national unity, Liu said.

Ram Baran Yadav from the Nepali Congress, with 308 votes won in the second-round presidential election on Monday, was elected the first president of the world's youngest federal democratic republic.

On Saturday, the Madhesi People's Rights Forum candidate Paramananda Jha was declared the first vice president of republican Nepal by the CA.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2008)