BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The friendly cooperation between China and Africa is aimed at promoting world peace and development and will not impair or threaten the interests of any other country, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said Sunday.

    China-Africa cooperation is based on the respect for each other's territorial integrity and non-inference in others' internal affairs, he said at a joint press conference at the end of the two-day Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

    In response to some Western media reports labeling African leaders attending the summit as "dictators seeking new homeland in China" and "shunning their responsibilities on human rights", Li said he was certain the correspondents who wrote such reports did not catch the essence of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence or the UN Charter.

    "Therefore they found it difficult to understand the essence and importance of China-Africa cooperation," he said.

    China, as a developing country, has to tackle its own challenges in social and economic development but has been providing assistance to "our brothers and sisters in Africa to the best of our ability", he said.

    Peace and stability is the most important, the minister said.

    "China has participated in 12 of the UN's peacekeeping missions in Africa since 1996 and have sent more than 3,000 peacekeepers," he said. "When we're meeting at the cozy Great Hall of the People in Beijing, about 1,300 Chinese peacekeepers are carrying out six missions in Africa."

    China has undertaken nearly 900 projects in Africa since the founding of new China in 1949. "If anyone goes to Africa, he's sure to meet some locals speaking better Chinese than I do," said Li. "Some elderly people I met in Uganda could even sing Chinese songs."

    Ethiopian and Egyptian foreign ministers were also present at the press conference.

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