BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie on Tuesday pledged to increase military cooperation with Ecuador.

    Liang, also a State Councilor, made the remarks during his talk with Ecuador Minister of Defense Javier Ponce.

    Hailing the smooth growth of Sino-Ecuadorian relations, Liang said to enhance cooperation accorded with the fundamental interests of the two peoples.

    China valued the friendly relation with the Ecuadorian armed forces, and was ready to promote exchanges and cooperation in various areas between the two defense organs and the two militaries..

    Liang hoped the two countries would make concerted efforts to lift bilateral military relations to a new level.

    He also briefed guests on China’s stance over the Taiwan issue.

    Ponce said Ecuador would work with China to create a new situation of the development of bilateral relations, and to strengthen the defense cooperation between the two sides.

    Ecuador would continue sticking to one-China policy, Ponce reiterated.

    Zhou Tienong, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top advisory body, also met with Ponce on Tuesday.

    He hoped the relation between the two militaries would witness further growth with the joint efforts of both sides.

   ¡¡BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — Chinese State Councilor Ma Kai on Tuesday met with World Petroleum Council (WPC) president Randy Gossen, who is here to attend an international energy forum.

    ”As the world’s biggest developing country, China has not only met the energy demand required by its economic development, but also endeavored to strike a balance between energy utilization and environmental protection,” Ma told the visiting Canadian.

    The two-day forum will be held in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday, drawing representatives from the WPC, World Renewable Energy Congress and International Energy Agency.

    In their hour-long talk in the central government compound Zhongnanhai in downtown Beijing, Ma told Dr. Gossen China would make continued efforts to build an energy supply system that was stable, economical, clean and safe.

    ”We will seek a sustainable development of energy so as to support a sustained economic and social development.”

    The two also exchanged views on stepping up international energy cooperation and ensuring energy safety.

    MOSCOW, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — China and Russia will further promote trade and economic cooperation while bilateral trade volume is expected to exceed 50 billion U.S. dollars this year, senior trade officials of the two countries said here Tuesday.

    China and Russia will carry out a series of big projects in fields such as civil aviation, space exploration, energy machinery, said a statement issued after talks between visiting Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and his Russian counterpart Elvira Nabiullina.

    The two countries will also expand trade in machinery and electronic products sectors, encourage two-way investment, push forward regional cooperation, speed up cooperation in infrastructure construction, timber and resources processing industries as well as in logistics.

    The top trade officials also pledged to enhance coordination in solving problems raised in market access and trade, and create a sound climate for increasing two-way investment, said the statement.

    China proposed the two sides to strengthen cooperation in regard to customs in a bid to facilitate trade, which Russia welcomed.

    According to Chen, closer cooperation between China and Russia bears even more extraordinary significance at the moment when the world’s financial markets are troubled by the credit crunch.

    Trade between China and Russia surged by 23 percent year on year to hit 43 billion dollars in the January-September period of 2008; while the target for 2010 is 60-80 billion dollars.

Special report: Pakistani Situation    

    BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari arrived here on Tuesday evening, starting his four-day state visit to China, his first official visit abroad since assuming office.

    Zardari was visiting as a guest of President Hu Jintao. During his stay, he is expected to hold talks with Hu and meet with other leaders, including top legislator Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao and top advisor Jia Qinglin.

    ”I’m looking forward to visiting China. … I am hoping to remind the leadership of the world how close our relationship is,”Zardari told Xinhua on Monday in an interview before his China trip.

    He described himself as “the first businessman president of Pakistan” who focused more on trade and economic ties with China. He added he had a long-term economic cooperation plan with China, and would “bring my own concept to China.”

    China expected the visit to deepen bilateral strategic and cooperative partnership, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a regular press conference last week.

    Zardari won the presidential election in September and took office as the nation’s 12th president, succeeding former leader Pervez Musharraf who resigned last month.

    BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — Chinese State Councilor and State Council Secretary-General Ma Kai on Tuesday met with former Australian Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile.

    During their hour-long talk in the central government compound Zhongnanhai in downtown Beijing, they exchanged views on how to deal with the world financial crisis and boost bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

    Ma also briefed Vaile on China’s economic and social development.

    BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his British counterpart Gordon Brown in a phone conversation Tuesday exchanged opinions on the current international financial crisis.

    Wen said China paid great attention to the turmoil that the crisis had brought to the world, while speaking highly of the measures that the affected countries including Britain had taken to stabilize the financial markets.

    He said despite still in its beginning stages, the Chinese financial industry has in recent years opened to the outside world steadily and the participation of Chinese financial institutions in international financial markets has been reinforced.

    The long-term reform has strengthened Chinese financial institutions’ anti-risk capability and the impact the current crisis has had on China is limited and controllable, Wen said.

    He added that China is confident of safeguarding the stability of the domestic financial market.

    The Chinese premier also noted that the international community should strengthen cooperation to fight the crisis.

    China will take up flexible and cautious macroeconomic policies to maintain stability in the economy and finance and capital markets, which will contribute a lot to the world markets, he said.

    Brown said the international community should make joint efforts to avoid global economic recession.

    The international community should reach an agreement to remedy the weakness of the current global financial system and enhance the supervision of the banking system, transnational corporations and financial institutions.

    The international community spoke highly of China’s role in stabilizing the current international financial market and Britain would like to reinforce exchanges and cooperation with China in this field, he added.