To continuously enhance bilateral relations conforms to their common interest and it is a necessary choice to cater for the development, noted Zhu during the summit which was jointly held by Zhu, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and President of the European Commission (EC) Romano Prodi.

Zhu referred to the implementation of the consensus reached between the two sides during last year's summit, and the continuous enrichment of the content of China-EU overall partnership.

Besides this, there have been active political dialogues and consultation between the two sides, with sound coordination and cooperation in international and regional affairs within the United Nations and the Asia-Europe Meeting along with more consensuses on major international and regional issues, added Zhu.

Expressing his satisfaction with the development of bilateral economic and trade relations, Zhu said China also hopes the EU can be China's top trade partner as Prodi said and will make joint efforts to this end.

He pointed out that to properly handle problems, which may arise from bilateral economic and trade relations, is crucial to furthering bilateral cooperation.

He said he hoped that the European side can continue its cooperative, practical and constructive attitude, change its discriminative anti-dumping policies, lift its ban on importing China's animal-related products at an early date, and give China a complete market economy status in line with the World Trade Organization rules, especially the non-discrimination rules.

Rasmussen said the EU-China relations at present are good, and the EU takes China as an important cooperative partner with bilateral dialogues and cooperation in various fields expanding.

He said he hoped that bilateral dialogues on regional and security issues can be further enhanced.

Prodi, for his part, stressed that bilateral trade relations are very important, and China is expected to become EU's most important trade partner in the world.

The EU's expansion in the future will positively promote the development of bilateral economic and trade relations, noted Prodi. He voiced his hope that China can continue to increase Euro reserve, believing that some problems in bilateral economic and trade relations will be solved properly.

Denmark is the second leg of Zhu's European visit and he is also scheduled to visit France.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2002)