BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and president of China held talks with Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) andchairman of the National Defense Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

    Kim paid an unofficial visit to China from April 19 to 21 at the invitation of Hu, announced a spokesman with the International Department of the CPC Central Committee here Wednesday.

    During the talks, leaders of the two parties and the two countries, amid a cordial, friendly and candid atmosphere, briefed each other on their respective domestic conditions, and exchanged views and reached wide-ranging consensus on further developing the relations between the two parties and the two countries, international and regional situations and the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula.

    Hu extended a warm welcome to Kim, holding that this visit fully demonstrates the great importance attached by Kim, the WPK and the DPRK government to the development of relations between the two parties and the two countries.

    Kim expressed warm congratulations on China's new collective leadership with Comrade Hu Jintao as general secretary. Kim said he was very happy to meet with Hu again.

    Leaders of the two parties and the two countries spoke positively of the China-DPRK relations. Hu said that in the new century, both China and the DPRK, in the spirit of inheriting the tradition, facing up to the future, building good-neighborly friendship and strengthening cooperation, have made positive efforts for the development of bilateral relations in the new era.There has been a sound momentum for bilateral high-level exchanges,and bilateral exchanges and cooperation at various levels and in different fields have become ever more active and bilateral economic and trade cooperation have continuously witnessed new progresses.

    The Chinese side is satisfied with the development of the friendly and cooperative relations between the two parties and thetwo countries, noted Hu.

    Hu said this year is the 55th anniversary of China-DPRK diplomatic relations, and reviewing the development of bilateral relations in the past half a century, we feel deeply that the friendship and cooperation between the two parties and the two countries have been deep-rooted and even firmer as time goes by. China's new collective leadership treasures the China-DPRK friendship meticulously cultivated by leaders of elder generationsof the two countries, and will continue making efforts for the consolidation and development of bilateral friendship.

    Under the new circumstances, said Hu, to raise bilateral friendship and cooperation to a new level in a bid to continuouslyinvigorate bilateral traditional friendship, the Chinese side suggests that both sides further strengthen high-level exchanges between the two parties and the two countries to enhance mutual understanding and trust, strengthen exchanges and deepen bilateraloverall cooperation in various fields, strengthen communication, consultations and cooperation on major international and regional issues, and further develop bilateral economic and trade cooperation.