Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, delivers a speech at the Romanian Senate in Bucharest, capital of Romania, May 5, 2008. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) Photo Gallery>>>

    BUCHAREST, May 6 (Xinhua) -- China will always pursue the route of peaceful development, senior Chinese leader Jia Qinglin said here Monday.

    Jia, chairman of China's top political consultative body, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks while speaking at the Romanian Senate.

    Jia said China is a peace-loving country and will always be a steady force for maintaining world peace. The Chinese have always attached importance to harmony and pursued "peace for all states" and "world peace" as the utmost ideal.

    He said China has a stronger-than-ever sense of cherishing peace after going through a long period of war and turmoil in its history.

    He emphasized that China will never interfere in other countries' internal affairs, nor impose its own ideas on others. He said China pursues a defensive defense policy and does not have expansionist intentions.

Jia Qinglin (C), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, delivers a speech at the Romanian Senate in Bucharest, capital of Romania, May 5, 2008. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) Photo Gallery>>>

    China is sensitive to the legitimate concerns of other parties, especially developing countries, while realizing its own development goals, and will support the international community's effort to help developing countries, Jia added.

    He pledged that China will actively participate in international cooperation on trade, investment, finance and energy, while properly resolving trade friction through consultations. China will push for a situation where all countries share development opportunities and face challenges together, he said further.

    Noting that enhancing environment protection and tackling climate change are common tasks of all countries in the world, Jia said China will always push forward the development of an ecological civilization, give priority to resource efficiency and environment friendly practices in the process of industrialization and modernization.

    He said China will step up efforts to develop and spread technologies of energy efficiency, environment protection and renewable energy, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It will also strengthen environment protection and push forward international cooperation on environment and climate change.

    Jia arrived in Bucharest on Sunday on a four-day goodwill visit. Romania is the first leg of his four-nation Europe tour, which will also take him to Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia.