China is willing to cooperation with Russia in oil production and building nuclear power plants, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during an interview by the Interfax News Agency prior to his visit to Russia.

He said that it was in the interests of both China and Russia to boost oil and gas cooperation. The leaders of both sides have reached consensus and have worked hard to develop a plan for the oil pipeline from Russia's Angarsk to China's Daqing. China believes the Russian government and businesses will regard China as a prior destination of the pipeline as China is the most long-standing and stable oil and gas market to Russia.

Before the pipeline is built, China is willing to strengthen energy cooperation with Russia in other ways, for instance, expanding Russian oil exports to China through railway transport.

Russia will be able to export a total of 15 million tons of oil to China by 2006. Meanwhile, Chinese companies are willing to cooperate with Russian companies in prospecting, exploiting and developing oil, said Wen.

In addition, Wen noted that nuclear plant construction was another important field in Sino-Russian energy cooperation. China's present total installed generating capacity of nuclear power is only 6.7 million kilowatts. It is expected to reach 8.7 million kilowatts by 2005, which will be only two percent of China's gross installed generating capacity.

China has decided to establish more nuclear power plants and buy advanced technology and equipment through public bidding, China and Russia have carried out effective cooperation in the construction of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in Jiangsu Province.

Wen said he hopes both sides will continue to cooperate to ensure the construction quality.

Wen left Beijing for Kyrgyzstan and Russia on Tuesday.