The path China has chosen and adhered to is one of peaceful development and China's development is characterized by peace, openness and cooperation, President Hu Jintao said in London on Wednesday.

"The Chinese people are keenly aware that only development achieved through peaceful means can be sustained and solid, benefiting themselves as well as people across the world," President Hu said at a dinner hosted by Alderman Michael Savory, the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

China's path of peaceful development is "an inevitable choice" based on its national conditions, its historical and cultural traditions and the current development trend in today's world, Hu said.

Despite its great economic achievements over the past 27 years of reform and opening up, China remains the largest developing country in the world, Hu said, adding that the living standards ofthe Chinese people are "still not high" and that "China still faces many outstanding contradictions and problems in the course of its development."

"Since the founding of the People's Republic, we have been committed to an independent foreign policy of peace, developing friendship and cooperation with all countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and living in peace and harmony with all countries," the Chinese president said.

Hu noted that the purpose of China's foreign policy is to safeguard world peace and promote common development.

"We stand for democratic international relations and diverse development models, vigorously make economic globalization move ina direction that facilitates common prosperity, and promote the establishment of a just and rational new international political and economic order," he added.

"China's growth means more opportunities and a bigger market for the rest of the world," Hu stressed.

China stands for having active international cooperation, promoting liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment,removing trade barriers, further opening up markets, lifting restrictions on technology export, and establishing a multilateraltrading regime that is open, fair, reasonable, transparent and non-discriminatory, he said.

Hu arrived here earlier Tuesday for a state visit to Britain atthe invitation of British Queen Elizabeth II.

Britain is the first leg of Hu's four-nation tour of Western Europe and Asia. He will also visit Germany, Spain and the Republic of Korea and attend the 13th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in Busan on Nov. 18-19.