Chinese President Hu Jintao left Beijing on Tuesday morning to pay a state visit to Poland, Hungary, Romania and Uzbekistan. 

The entourage included his wife Liu Yongqing, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai, Director of the Policy Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Wang Huning, and Deputy Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee Ling Jihua.

Hu is to visit the four nations at the invitation of Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Hungarian President Madl Ferenc, Romanian President Ion Iliescu, and Uzbekistani President Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov.

During his visit, Hu will also attend the Tashkent summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Before leaving for the visit, President Hu met with Zhang Deguang, secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and other officials from the SCO secretariat at the Beijing airport.

Hu gave a positive appraisal for what the SCO secretariat has done since it was established this January, and said China will continue to support the work of the SCO secretariat.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2004)