China hopes to reach an agreement on building a free trade area with the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) at an earlier possible date, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Tuesday.

Wen made the remarks when he and Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah met with a delegation of six GCC member countries' financial ministers and GCC secretary-general.

The delegation's visit coincides with the eight-day official visit to China by the Kuwaiti prime minister, who holds the current GCC rotating presidency.

Wen said this joint visit to China, the first of its kind, is of great importance to bilateral relations, which shows that both sides have attached importance to the development and consolidation of their relations.

Wen stressed that it is the Chinese government's fixed policy to forge the overall development of its relations with the Gulf countries and the GCC.

The Chinese side will push for the establishment of long-term, steady, and cooperative relations of mutual benefit between the two sides, hoping to continue bilateral high-level contacts, further strengthen their coordination and cooperation in international affairs and expand bilateral cooperation in various fields, said Wen.

The delegation members 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, Qatari Minister of Finance Yousuf Hussein Kamal, and GCC Secretary-General Abdul-rahman Al-attiyah.

On behalf of the six GCC member countries, the Kuwaiti prime minister said the delegation's visit and the signing of an agreement between the two sides constitute a new starting point in bilateral relations. He said GCC hopes to strengthen cooperation with China in economy and trade and concretize all China-GCC agreements.

He also said he hoped that Gulf countries will expand cooperation with China in various fields.

After the meeting, Wen and Sabah attended a signing ceremony of an agreement on economic and science and technology cooperation between the Chinese and the Kuwaiti governments and a framework agreement on cooperation in economy, trade, investment and technology between China and the GCC countries.