A senior Chinese leader called for strengthening economic cooperation between China and the Republic of Korea (ROK), saying the two countries should make joint efforts to expedite the process of regional cooperation Saturday.

Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the call at a luncheon held by four ROK economic organizations in Seoul.

Jia said that China and ROK, both important countries in East Asia, shoulder their part of responsibility for regional peace and prosperity.

He said that East Asia is a diversified region with different ideologies, different political systems, different cultural background and different levels of development in addition to complicated problems. Therefore, only by exercising mutual respect, seeking common ground while reserving differences, can the countries create a harmonious political environment, a peaceful security environment and a win-win cooperation environment.

"Only in this way, can they push the regional cooperation to forge ahead on the basis of mutual understanding and mutual trust, " he said.

Jia also called for increasing trust through dialogue and seeking security through cooperation. He stressed that the history and reality both have proved that the old security thinking, which stands for seeking security by confrontation with military might, is inconducive to achieving and safeguarding security.

He said the countries in East Asia should get rid of the Cold War thinking, seeking security through dialogue and seeking stability through cooperation.

Jia noted that the reconciliation process on the Korean peninsula has registered progress time and again for the past years, and the six-party talks on the Korean peninsular nuclear issue have yielded some positive results.

Jia also expounded the need to deepen people-to-people friendship and strengthen cooperation and exchanges between China and ROK, saying that people-to-people exchange is an important link of the state-to-state relations.

The four economic organizations are the Federation of Korean Industries, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Korea International Trade Association and Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business.

Kang Shin-ho, president of the Federation of Korean Industries, at the luncheon said that Jia's visit to ROK is of far-reaching significance as it fell on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

In view of the importance recently attached to regional cooperation in northeast Asia, it is necessary to further economic relations between ROK and China, he said.

Kang said that as an entrepreneur, he felt proud of the rapid development of economic relations between China and ROK.

The two countries have become not only important trade and investment partners, but also cooperation partners with close ties in political and diplomatic spheres, he added, citing the fact that the trade volume between the two countries has grown from 6 billion US dollars at the time of the establishment of diplomatic ties to the current 60 billion dollars.

He predicted that the bilateral economic ties will become even closer in the future.

The CPPCC is China's top advisory body, consisting of representatives of the Communist Party of China, non-Communist parties, personages without party affiliation, and representatives of people's organizations, national minorities and all social strata.

Jia arrived here Thursday for a four-day official goodwill visit to ROK.