President Hu Jintao met with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi after the conclusion of the outreach session of the G8 summit on Monday.

 

This is the first meeting between the two leaders after Prodi, a former president of the European Commission, won the election in Italy to head the Italian government earlier this year.

 

Hu said that China values its ties with Italy, vowing to lift the bilateral cooperative relations to a higher level.

 

Prodi said building priority relations with China is an important policy of his government, adding that he would push forward bilateral ties and make Italy a vital cooperation partner for China in Europe.

 

The two leaders also agreed to support the communication and cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises from both countries.

 

They said they would support bilateral culture exchange programs like "the Year of Italy" in China.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2006)