China has reiterated its support for the government of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe by dispatching a high level official to attend the national conference of Mugabe's ruling party.

Jiang Yikang, a alternate member of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) central committee, attended the five-day fourth national conference of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), which ended Sunday, at the invitation of ZANU-PF.

Jiang met Wednesday with Emmerson Mnangagwa, a top ZANU-PF official and speaker of the Zimbabwe parliament, and Didymus Mutasa, ZANU-PF secretary of foreign affairs.

Both Mnangagwa and Mutasa thanked the Chinese government for supporting ZANU-PF and reiterated their adherence to the one-China policy. Zimbabwe hopes to deepen cooperation with China in agriculture, mining and tourism, they said.

Jiang said China and Zimbabwe respect, trust and support each other and have carried out effective cooperation in various fields.

Jiang described China and Zimbabwe as "all-weather friends" and added that the CPC values the cooperation with ZANU-PF and stands ready to strengthen cooperation between the two sides.

Jiang read out a congratulatory message from the CPC Central Committee to ZANU-PF Thursday at the national conference and on Monday conveyed Chinese President Hu Jintao's congratulatory message to Robert Mugabe who was re-elected as ZANU-PF party leader at the conference.