China is willing to join hands with India to promote friendly exchanges and expand substantial cooperation so as to push bilateral strategic cooperative ties to a new height, said Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in New Delhi yesterday.

Li made the remarks while meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the 14th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). China was invited to the meeting, which opened here Tuesday, as an observer.

Li said that leaders of China and India had reached a consensus on deepening bilateral strategic cooperative partnership and formulated a 10-point strategy to this end.

In response, Singh said that India welcomed China as a SAARC observer and that there was great potential for cooperation in various fields between China and SAARC. SAARC wishes to share China's experience in poverty alleviation, he said.

Singh said that India was committed to deepening bilateral ties, implementing the 10-point strategy in order to achieve bilateral trade volume of 40 billion U.S. dollars by 2010.

Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India last year has injected new momentum to the development of the bilateral ties, said the Indian prime minister.

India is willing to push forward negotiations over the border issue in order to find a resolution based on equality and mutual benefit at an earliest date.

On the same day, Li also met and held talks with other delegates present at the SAARC summit.

While meeting with Bhutan Prime Minister Lyonpo Chenkyab Dorji,Li said that China and Bhutan had been long-term friendly neighbors and in recent years the two sides developed favorable exchanges and maintained peace and stability along the border, which are conducive to both countries.

Dorji said that the Bhutanese people had cherished the friendship with the Chinese people and that the Bhutanese government stuck to One China policy.

While meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, the Chinese foreign minister said that the two countries are standing new chances while celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the Sino-Sri Lankan Friendship Year in 2007.

China is willing to work with Sri Lanka to well organize the celebration programs so as to fully push forward the Sino-Sri Lankan comprehensive cooperative partnership, he said.

The bilateral relations between the two countries have stood the test of time and Sri Lanka expects to take the opportunity to enhance the friendly neighborhood and expand economic and trade cooperation, Bogollagama said.

While meeting with Sahana Pradhan, foreign minister of the Nepalese interim government, Li extended congratulations to the Nepalese interim government, hoping that the peace progress in Nepal would keep moving forward to realize stability and development in the country as early as possible.

Pradhan said that Nepal had always adhered to the One China policy and supported China's stand on Tibet.

Talking to Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Song Min-soon, Li said that the two countries would stand favorable chances to further the bilateral relations this year while celebrating the 15th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the China-ROK Exchange Year.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will visit the ROK soon, which is significant for improving strategic dialogue, promoting mutual cooperation and mutual benefits, Li said.

Song said that the ROK government was busy preparing for the visit of the Chinese premier and hoped that his visit would be fruitful for the future of the bilateral ties.

In talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, Li said that the current relationship between China and Japan is good in general.

As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will pay an official visit to Japan soon, he said, major opportunities for the development of the relations between the two countries have arisen. He said that the visit would play a significantly important role in promoting the further improvement of the bilateral relations.

Aso said that the relations between Japan and China had improved and that the high-level exchanges had been more and more frequent since last October. He said that the Japanese side was making preparations for Wen's visit to Japan and was ready to make unremitting efforts for the success of Wen's visit together with China.

Talking with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, Li said that both China and the United States should grasp tight their mutual benefits, strengthen the dialogue and cooperation in broadly-based bilateral issues and major international and regional affairs, and take issues of mutual interest and concern into consideration.

Li pointed out that the Taiwan authorities had recently been intensifying the action of seeking "Taiwan independence," posing a real and serious threat to peace and stability of the Taiwan Straits. Li urged the U.S. side to keep its promise by real action and not to send any wrong signal to the force seeking "Taiwan independence."

Boucher stressed that the U.S. side would stick to the One China policy and deal with concerned matters with caution. He said that the U.S. side was ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China in international and regional affairs.