BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Morocco nestles on the northwestern tip of Africa, bordered by Algeria to the east and Desert Sahara to the south. The Moroccan coastline fronts onto both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Across the Straits of Gibraltar, Spain is only a dozen kilometers away.

    The Islamic country has a population of some 30 million, mostly Arabs. Arabic is Morocco's national language, but French is also widely spoken. The capital city of Morocco is Rabat.

    Morocco is not highly industrialized, and agriculture remains the major sector of its national economy, with about 44 percent ofits population being farmers. Agriculture accounts for some 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

    Morocco has rich phosphate deposits of some 110 billion tons, or 75 percent of the total world reserve.

    With a coastline of more than 1,700 km, Morocco is rich in fishery resources and is the largest fish-producing country in Africa. It is also the largest sardine exporter in the world, with sardine accounting for more than 70 percent of its fish products.

    Morocco has many famous tourist attractions, revenue from tourism constitute a major foreign currency earner for the country. In 2007 it attracted 7.45 million tourists, bringing in 7.2 billion U.S. dollars. Capital city Rabat is noted for historical monuments in the kingdom. The ancient cities of Fez, Marrakesh and Casablanca are all well known tourist destinations frequented by visitors from all over the world.

    Since China and Morocco formed diplomatic ties on Nov. 1, 1958, the two countries have maintained growing friendly contacts and frequent exchanges of high-level visits.

    Recent years have witnessed further strengthening of bilateral economic and cultural cooperation. In 2007, their two-way trade volume reached 2.584 billion U.S. dollars.