Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) shakes hands with French President Jacques Chirac.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said in Beijing on October 9 that French President Jacques Chirac's state visit to China will further advance the all-around strategic partnership relations between China and France.

Shortly after his arrival in Beijing, Chirac and Hu began their formal talks in the Great Hall of the People following a grand welcome ceremony. It was the third visit of Chirac as French President.

"The China-France relations have entered a new stage of comprehensive and fast development," Hu said.

Hu made a four-point proposals on the future growth of China-France ties. He suggested China and France enhance strategic dialogue and cooperation, increase exchanges between state leaders and forge a mechanism of annual meeting between state leaders of the two countries.

He proposed building stronger China-France economic and trade ties in areas of aviation, space-flight, transportation, nuclear energy, high-tech industry, small and medium-sized enterprises, agriculture and environmental protection.

Hu suggested that the two countries enhance exchanges and cooperation in culture, education and science and technology, and explore new ways of cooperation in those areas by summing up experiences of the Chinese Culture Year in France and the French Year in China.

The last point Hu made is to step up coordination and cooperation in international and regional issues, promoting democracy in international relations and diversity in mode of development.

The proposal was echoed by Chirac, who said he completely agreed with the proposal and that France is ready to make joint efforts with China for further friendly cooperation in various fields.

On the Taiwan issue, Chirac said the French Government firmly supports the one-China principle and opposes any move that will lead to intensification of cross-Strait situation or "Taiwan independence".

Chirac brought with him scores of French entrepreneurs to China. China and France inked a batch of cooperative documents, covering prevention and control of contagious diseases, information technology, telecommunications, environmental protection, railways, movies, aviation and banking.

China-France trade value grew 60.9 percent in 2003 from a year ago to 13.4 billion US dollars.

Besides economic issues, Chirac was expected to attend the opening ceremony of the French Culture Year during his China tour.

Hu and Chirac agreed that the Sino-French Culture Year is a "pioneering undertaking" in the history of bilateral cultural exchanges, and will exert profound influences on the development of bilateral relations.

In addition, the two sides agreed to further promote and deepen bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields and lift to a higher level the Sino-French and Sino-European all-around strategic partnership relations.

The French President started his five-day China tour from Friday evening at Chengdu, capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province. Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong greeted him and his party at the airport. The two also had a meeting on Saturday in Chengdu, promising to deepen bilateral trade cooperation.

In the evening in Beijing, Chirac and Chinese President Hu Jintao came to the Zhengyang Gate, a structure of more than 500 year old decorated with red, white and blue lights to represent French national flag, and took photos there to mark his China tour.

Chirac will also tour China's economic hub Shanghai and Hong Kong.