BEIJING, March 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told Russian press that his government supports Chinese companies to conduct energy cooperation with Russian enterprises.

    "The Chinese government supports Chinese companies to cooperate with Russian enterprises through various ways including investment to jointly explore the oil and gas field in Russia's eastern Siberia and far east," Li said in a written interview with Russia press posted Monday on the Feign Ministry's official website.

    Li said the presidents of the two countries and the two governments have reached consensus, on many occasions, to support enterprises of both countries to conduct cooperation on the exploration.

    He said energy cooperation is an important cooperative field between China and Russia and the two countries are highly complementary in the field.

    The Chinese Foreign Minister said the energy cooperation between the two countries are currently developing positively after years of efforts. He said he hoped the two countries would continue the cooperation with the principle of mutual benefit and trust to achieve a win-win result.

    On global energy safety and the upcoming G8 summit in Russia, Li said China supports Russia's proposal of listing the energy safety issue as one of the key topics of the summit.

    Li said China supports Russia to play an important role in promoting international cooperation in the field of energy.

    He also expressed his hope that all the participants of the summit would play constructive role in promoting global energy safety and boost sustainable development.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to arrive in China Tuesday for a two-day visit. Enditem