FM spokesman on French PM's China visit

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is paying an official visit to China and talked with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Thursday morning.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a regular press conference, Premier Wen and Raffarin exchanged views in their talks on furthering Sino-French and Sino-EU ties and on other international issues of common concern.

Both sides, during their talks, spoke highly of the development of Sino-French relations in recent years. China hopes that the two countries can continue to keep their current momentum in high- level visits and actively expand cooperation in economy, trade, energy, transport, aviation, agriculture and environment.

Premier Wen also proposed to establish and improve various kinds of cooperation mechanisms between the two governments, and to promote cooperation in law between the two sides based on mutual respect.

Wen and Raffarin attended a signing ceremony of 20 agreements on cooperation between China and France in such fields as agriculture, aviation and energy.

On the Europe Union's arms embargo on China, China reiterated that the embargo has become an obstacle to the development of Sino- EU comprehensive strategic partnership, and that the early lifting of the embargo will be conducive to further development of Sino-EU relations.

Raffarin also reiterated France's support for lifting the arms embargo against China. Raffarin arrived here Thursday morning on a three-day official visit to China. Besides Beijing, he will also visit Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, and Shanghai, China's economic hub.

Raffarin is scheduled to leave Shanghai Saturday, concluding his second visit to China since 2003.