A Confucius Institute was opened Tuesday in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, in a move to further expand culture exchange and educational cooperation between China and Portugal.

The school, co-sponsored by the University of Lisbon and China's Tianjin Foreign Studies University, is the second of its kind to be set up in Portugal, as part of the two countries' mutual efforts to expand cooperation.

The first Confucius Institute in Portugal was established in 2005 in Minio University in the northwestern city of Braga.

The Confucius Institute at the University of Lisbon not only offers a better chance for the Portuguese to study Chinese, but will also help strengthen bilateral cooperation in education, culture and trade, China's ambassador to Portugal Gao Kexiang said at the plaque-unveiling ceremony Tuesday.

Sampaio da Novoa, president of the University of Lisbon, said universities nowadays seek an increasingly international and diversified profile, and the Confucius Institute well serves this goal as well as helps promote cooperation between Portuguese and Chinese universities.

Xiu Gang, president of Tianjin Foreign Studies University, said he will make every effort to make the new Confucius institute one of the best in Europe.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2008)