Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) and Australian Prime Minister John Winston Howard meet press after their talks in Canberra, Australia Oct. 24, 2003. (Xinhua Photo/Fan Rujun)

¡¡¡¡CANBERRA, Oct. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao raised a four-point proposal Friday for the development of China-Australia relations when meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

¡¡¡¡During the meeting, the two leaders exchanged views and reached consensus on how to strengthen all-round cooperation, and on regional and international issues of common concern.

¡¡¡¡Hu said China highly appreciated the Australian government's efforts to forge a strong partnership with China.

¡¡¡¡And China's new leadership has attached great importance to the Sino-Australian relations and hopes to treat and develop the relations from a strategic view, he said.

¡¡¡¡"We are willing to make joint efforts with Australia to further promote our cooperation in all fields and let the peoples of the two countries benefit from the cooperation," Hu said.

¡¡¡¡To achieve that end, the Chinese president said, the two countries should first enhance mutual trust and broaden common interest.

¡¡¡¡Both sides should maintain momentum of high-level exchange of visits and give full play to the existing consultation and dialogue mechanism so as to cement the political foundation for bilateral ties, the president said.

¡¡¡¡Second, new areas of economic cooperation should be explored. As important trading and investment partners, the two countries have conducted successful cooperation in science and technology, health, environmental protection and quarantine, he said.

¡¡¡¡"Australia has advanced technology and management in many fields while China possesses a vast market and abundant labor. Their enhanced cooperation of mutual benefit will surely benefit each other's prosperity and development."

¡¡¡¡China is willing to establish a long-term and stable partnership of cooperation with Australia on energy and resources, Hu said.

¡¡¡¡Third, the two countries should respect each other and seek common ground while reserving differences.

¡¡¡¡Both countries should take interests and concerns of the other into consideration and properly handle the disagreements between them in order to ensure a smooth development of bilateral relations, Hu said.

¡¡¡¡Finally, efforts should be made to strengthen consultation and coordination on international issues, the Chinese president said.

¡¡¡¡China is ready to exchange views with Australia in a timely manner on major regional and international issues, and coordinate their positions in such organizations as the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum with a view to maintaining world stability and development, Hu said.

¡¡¡¡Reiterating that the Australian government will firmly pursue the one-China policy, Howard said he fully agrees to the proposals.

¡¡¡¡He said that he believes new achievements will be made in politics, trade and economic relations, energy, education and tourism as all-round cooperation between the two countries moves forward by joint efforts.

¡¡¡¡On the same day, President Hu also met with Labor Party leader Simon Crean.

¡¡¡¡Hu praised the Labor party for promoting the China-Australia ties over the past decades and for maintaining good relations with the Communist Party of China (CPC).

¡¡¡¡"We are glad to see that forging Sino-Australian friendly relations has become the consensus of all parties in Australia," he said.

¡¡¡¡Crean said his party would like to have discussion with the CPC on closer bilateral relations based on the one-China policy. Enditem