Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao met on Friday evening with Osaka Prefecture Governor Toru Hashimoto and local government officials of Japan's Kansai region.

Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) meets with Osaka Prefecture Governor Toru Hashimoto in Osaka, Japan, May 9, 2008.

Osaka and the broader Kansai region, with traditional close ties with China since ancient times, have been in the forefront of Japan's cooperation with China since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Hu said. He expressed appreciation of the region's commitments to advancing exchanges and cooperation with China and its active contribution to the development of the China-Japan relations in the past years.

On China's ongoing efforts to build a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society, Hu said that Japan has accumulated rich experience and advanced technologies on energy conservation and environmental protection, and cooperation between the two countries in this field has huge potential and may well become a new source for economic growth and a new vantage point for economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

Hashimoto, for his part, pledged to continue the region's long-lasting commitments to developing friendship and cooperation in a variety of fields with China.

Before coming to Osaka, Hu met in Yokohama with Kanagawa Prefecture Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa and Hiroshi Nakada, mayor of Yokohama, capital of the prefecture south of Tokyo.

Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao (R Front) talks with Kanagawa Prefecture Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa during their meeting in Yokohama, Japan, May 9, 2008.

Hu talked about the prefecture's centuries-old exchange with China, especially the Yokohama China Town, one of the three famous China towns in Japan. He hoped that the prefecture and the city could do more for the development of the China-Japan strategic and mutually beneficial relations in the new times.

Matsuzawa and Nakada extended their good wishes to the upcoming Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo, saying the prefecture and the city are eager to take the opportunities to strengthen friendly cooperation with China.

The two local officials also pledged efforts to implement the consensus reached by leaders of the two countries and help advance the bilateral relations.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2008)