Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress, arrived in Moscow Sunday to continue his seven-day official good-will visit to Russia.

Wu came to Moscow from Russia's eastern Siberian city of Irkutsk, where he met with governor of Irkutsk region Boris Govorin earlier on Sunday.

Wu told Govorin that Irkutsk and China have enjoyed fruitful cooperation not only in the past, but also in recent years that has laid a good fundation for broadening and deepening cooperation.

He said the Chinese government attaches great importance to boosting China-Russia regional exchanges and cooperation. He pointed out that the two sides share wide prospects in enhancing cooperation in the areas of energy resources and timber processing, noting that China and Russia hold the strong desire to strengthen trade and economic ties.

He expressed the hope that the two sides should turn the desire of cooperation into practice as soon as possible by encouraging their large enterprises to realize mutually beneficial, long-term, strategic and large-scale projects.

He called on the two sides to take full advantage of the bilateral harmonizing mechanism in solving current problems in trade contacts to bring the bilateral trade and economic interaction to a new level.

Govorin, on his part, said that Irkutsk values cooperation with China, noting that Wu's visit would boost regional trade and economic cooperation between Russia and China.

The governor vowed to take active efforts in promoting long-term and effective cooperation with China in the fields of oil, natural gas and electricity sectors.

During his stay in Moscow, Wu will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the Federation Council (upper house of the parliament) Sergei Mironov and Chairman of the State Duma (lower house of the parliament) Boris Gryzlov in separate talks to promote better understanding and explore ways of enhancing bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Russia is the first leg of Wu's four-nation European tour that will also take him to Bulgaria, Denmark and Norway.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2004)