China will cooperate with Australia for the next four years in sports as well as sports-related fields and learn valuable experiences from the 2000 Olympics host, said Chinese Olympic Committee president Yuan Weimin in Beijing on Monday.

"Australia boasts its strength in equestrian, swimming, tennis, cycling, athletics and aquatic events, allowing for a large room for exchange and mutual complementary with China," said Yuan, who also heads the General Administration of Sport of China.

Australia claimed seven gold, five silver and three bronze from swimming at the Athens Olympic Games where they finished fourth in the medals tally with 17 gold, 16 silver and 16 bronze.

Cycling was their second gold mine as they bagged six gold plus two silver and two bronze.

Whereas China, second with 32 gold behind the United States in Athens, has been known for its prowess in table tennis, badminton, shooting, diving and weightlifting.

"As the 2008 Olympic Games is drawing near, it is high time that we set up the framework of sports cooperation in the form of agreement signing," Yuan said at the signing ceremony of Agreement of Cooperation between Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) and Chinese Olympic Committee (COC).

"We will carry out more extensive cooperation in fields like doping control and sports marketing," Yuan said.

"And their experiences on hosting the Olympic Games are valuable for us," he added.

AOC president John Coates echoed Yuan's view.

"Our teams will train together... And our coaches, trainers, judges, officials, experts and scientists will attend seminars and courses and exchange ideas beneficial to both countries," he said.

"We will take benefits from the cooperation in developing our sport events that are not strong such as badminton," he said. "We have six training exchange programs next year and hope they can help our performance in badminton."

According to the Agreement, the 2008 Olympics host city of Beijing will be encouraged to invite Australian athletes participate in the Olympic test events planned for 2007-2008 while Australia will provide advice to the COC on its experience as host NOC for the Sydney Olympic Games. Both will invite each other to take part in the national and international competitions being held in respective countries.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2004)