China's top legislator Wu Bangguo said in Volgograd Saturday that regional cooperation between China and Russia is an important part of Sino-Russian strategic cooperation partnership.

Meeting Volgograd State leader Nikolai Maksyuta, Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress ( NPC), said that the Volgograd State was a leader in developing cooperation at local government level and had had fruitful cooperation with China's Jilin Province in areas such as agriculture laboring, vegetable cultivation, education and training.

He hoped that the Volgograd State would actively exploit more Chinese markets to strengthen cooperation at local government levels between the two countries to make new contributions to the overall bilateral relations.

Maksyuta said since his state and China's Jilin Province established friendly relations, cooperation in various fields has been expanding.

He said Volgograd hopes to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with other regions in China.

Wu arrived here Friday at the co-invitation of Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov and State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov to start his four-day official and goodwill visit to Russia.

Wu will leave here for Moscow Sunday, where he will meet Russian President V. Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, and hold talks with Mironov and Gryzlov respectively, and also attend the first meeting of the cooperation committee between the NPC and the State Duma, and the meeting among parliament leaders from the six members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization to be held in Moscow.

Russia is the last leg of Wu's four-nation tour during which he already visited Romania, Moldova and Greece.

Source: Xinhua