The Chinese government and the European Union (EU) signed a series of cooperation agreements Wednesday in a new bid to intensify cooperation and raise bilateral relationship to a higher level.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who is holding the seventh China-EU annual summit meeting, and EU leaders witnessed the signing ceremony before their joint press conference.

The signed pacts cover such areas as customs cooperation, science and technology, research and development on peaceful use of nuclear energy. The leaders also endorsed four financing agreements for new cooperation projects concerning information society, managers exchange and training, social security reform, and education.

These projects are under the program of support for economic and social reform in China within China-EU development cooperation, with EU funding amounting to 61 million euros (79 million US. dollars).