French President Jacques Chirac said his country is willing to further strengthen cooperation with China, his spokesman told reporters on Monday.

Chirac has expressed his belief that China's development is an opportunity for the economic growth and job increase in France, Jerome Bonnafont said.

"France must seize this chance because it has the capacity to be the partner of reference for China in many areas in which the strong features of the French economy can match the needs of China," the spokesman said.

Bonnafont said Chirac is expected to kick off his Asian tour on Tuesday, when he will fly to Vietnam to pay a state visit and attend an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit in Hanoi.

On Friday, Chirac will start a five-day state visit to China, which is also a return visit to the one paid to France by Chinese President Hu Jintao in January.

The two countries share same views on many political affairs, but France lags behind other European Union (EU) countries in terms of investment in China and has a long way to go amid fierce competition from such countries as the United States and Japan, he noted.

France is China's fourth-largest trading partner in the EU, well behind leader Germany, although bilateral trade grew strongly to 13.4 billion US dollars last year and is expected to increase by 40 percent this year.

Bonnafont said that during his visit, President Chirac and more than 50 French industrialists will launch a "concerted offensive" to win a larger slice of China's market.

Deals in energy sources, transport and aviation sectors are all due to be sealed, he added.

Source: Xinhua>