China holds positive attitudes towards strengthening economic and trade cooperation and establishing free trade area with the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue in Beijing Tuesday.

Zhang said at the regular press conference that an important GCC delegation, consisted of six ministers of the GCC member states and GCC secretary-general, was on their four-day visit to China started from Sunday at the invitation of the Chinese government.

Zhang introduced the GCC delegation's major activities in China. Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan held talks with the delegation, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the visiting Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah jointly met the delegation here Tuesday, Zhang said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing previously held political consultations Sunday with the GCC Secretary-General Abdul-rahman Al-attiyah and exchanged views with him on international issues of common concern. The other six ministers of the GCC member states also made in-depth consultations with relevant Chinese officials, she said.

The spokeswoman said the current visit of the GCC delegation will further strengthen the bilateral exchanges and cooperation between China and the GCC.

The GCC was founded in 1981 with six member states including Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. The bilateral trade volume between China and the GCC reached 16.9 billion US dollars in 2003, and the six GCC member states have become important trade partners of China in western Asia and in Asian and African region.

China and the GCC have enjoyed good relations in recent years, Zhang said, adding that every Chinese foreign minister has maintained contacts since 1990 with the foreign ministers of the GCC member states and the GCC secretary-general through attending the United Nations General Assembly every year.

China established political and economic consultation mechanism with the GCC in 1996, and the two sides have held such consultations for many times, Zhang said.

The six visiting ministers of the GCC member states are: Kuwaiti Minister of Finance Mahmoud Abdelkhaliq Alnouri, United Arab Emirates' Minister of State for Financial and Industrial Affairs Mohammed Khalfan Bin Kharbash, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Finance Ibrahim Bin Abdel Aziz Al-assaf, Bahrain's Minister of Finance and National Economy Abdullah Hassan Seif, Omani Minister of National Economy Ahmed Abdul Nabi Macki and Qatari Minister of Finance Yousuf Hussein Kamal.

Source: Xinhua