Visiting Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov pledged in Moscow Monday to further develop practical cooperation in various fields between the two countries.

During their talks, Wu, the chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), said that in recent years, mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia had developed rapidly with bilateral trade volume increasing and cooperation areas expanding.

He expressed the belief that with joint efforts, the two sides could fulfill the objective of increasing their bilateral trade volume from 60 billion U.S. dollars to 80 billion by 2010.

Wu said China was ready to work together with Russia to improve trade structure, regulate trade order, increase two-way investment, implement big projects and strengthen strategic cooperation in science and technology, especially in the high-tech field, as part of sincere efforts to further develop practical cooperation between the two countries.

Agreeing with Wu on bilateral relations, Fradkov described Russian and Chinese economies as complementary, adding that the cooperative foundation is good, and that the potential for increasing cooperation is great.

He said the Russian government would seriously strive to maintain the common understandings reached between the leaders of the two countries, while keeping cooperation in big projects as a priority in developing bilateral economic and trade ties. He also said Russia would work to strengthen cooperation in the areas of environmental protection, to achieve common sustainable development.

Wu arrived in Moscow on Sunday after a one-day visit to Volgograd, Russia. Russia is the last leg of Wu's four-nation tour which has already taken him to Romania, Moldova and Greece.

Source: Xinhua