Regarding Sino-Egyptian relations, which began 50 years ago, the eight visits to China by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during the last 30 years serve as a clear indicator of their strength. And here comes the ninth.

"It will be my ninth visit to China. And just like you, I feel optimistic and happy about this number," Mubarak said on Monday in an interview with Xinhua and other Chinese media.

At the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Mubarak is expected to participate in the Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled for Nov. 3-5 and make a state visit to China following the summit.

"For me, visiting China is like going home. Egypt sees China more as a brother than as an ordinary friendly nation," said Mubarak. He first visited China in April of 1976 as vice president, during which he was received by late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

EGYPT'S BROTHERLY TIES WITH CHINA

At the Cairo International Conference Center, a landmark complex built by China, Mubarak told Chinese reporters that Egypt recognized the People's Republic of China in May of 1956, an act which made Egypt the first African country to have formal ties with the new China, founded in 1949.

"Since then, Egypt has unswervingly stuck to the one-China policy. More than that, Egypt and China have successfully pushed bilateral political relations to a unique height through consultation and coordination in regional and international affairs," said the veteran Egyptian president.

Both Egypt and China had shown great interest in deepening and expanding that bilateral cooperation and would actively work at it, noted Mubarak.

In April 1999 when Mubarak visited China for the seventh time, Egypt and China signed a joint communique, declaring the goal of establishing strategic relations of cooperation.

In June 2006 when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Egypt, the two nations signed an implementation outline for deepening their strategic and cooperative relations, in which the two nations agreed to set up a strategic dialogue mechanism between their foreign ministers.

Mubarak, however, was eager to push the current Egypt-China relations further. "Although we signed in 1999 a communique to setup strategic cooperative relations between us, the cooperative relations still have much potential to be tapped," he said.

Mubarak stressed that he aimed to use his ninth visit to greatly improve Egypt-China cooperation in what he termed priority fields, and strengthen "the special political relations" between the two nations.

"I am full of confidence and optimism over future Egyptian-Sino cooperation. China will be the biggest trade partner of Egypt in 2012. We support both sides' efforts to increase bilateral trade volume to 5 billion U.S. dollars and to increase China's investment in Egypt to 2 billion dollars by 2012," he said.

According to the Chinese Ambassador to Egypt, Wu Sike, bilateral trade reached 1.958 billion dollars in the first eight months of this year, up 47.6 percent year-on-year. China's total investment in Egypt had risen to 230 million dollars by the end of June 2006.

The Egyptian president said his country welcomed more investment from China, as Egypt, blessed with a unique geographical position, had been trying to improve its investment climate.

"We have made lots of reforms in the sector of customs, taxes and banking. We give great interest to Chinese investments especially in the Suez Gulf area," he said.

Mubarak said Egypt also anticipated cooperation with China in some new domains including the development of peaceful nuclear energy and space technologies.

Mubarak, 78, became the Egyptian president in 1981 and has since then led this populous Arab nation for over 25 years.

BUILDING AFRICAN-SINO PARTNERSHIP

The establishment of Egyptian-Sino diplomatic ties in 1956 marked the beginning of a new era for the relations between China and Africa.

"African-Sino relations have been growing steadily in the last 50 years, which has given rise to admirable achievements in African-Sino cooperation in all fields," said Mubarak.

He took Africa-China cooperation on the political front as an example. The one-China policy had gained more and more support in Africa while China had paid increasing attention to African affairs, he said.

The development of Africa-China friendship should be credited to the fact that Africa-China relations are based on equality, mutual respect and reciprocity, he said.

Moreover, "China advocates the policy of solving African armed conflicts through peaceful means, and has exerted a lot of constructive effort in and outside of the United Nation Security Council in this regard," said Mubarak.

However, the great achievements made in African-Chinese cooperation during the last five decades does not mean that the relations are perfect, he said.

Instead, African-Sino cooperation still had more goals to be achieved, which would help push African-Chinese cooperation and friendship to a new height.

Development was the highest priority for African nations. While China, with its abilities in both politics and economy, was well qualified to be an important partner for Africa to achieve that priority, he said.

"I am saying again that I am looking toward the future of African-Chinese relations with full confidence and optimism," said Mubarak.

As for the upcoming FOCAC's Beijing Summit, Mubarak said it was a big event for two reasons: Africa and China are celebrating the golden jubilee of their diplomatic ties; the summit will help both sides to improve cooperation in various fields.

Egypt hoped that the Beijing Summit would not only be successful in terms of strengthening Africa-China cooperation, but also by establishing a guiding role for future cooperation between Africa and China, Mubarak said.

The Beijing summit would also be a good opportunity for African nations to examine and learn about China's extremely valuable experience in development through its reform and opening-up drive, he added.

During the summit, Chinese and African leaders will review China-Africa friendly relations over the past 50 years, blueprint future cooperation, and exchange views on major international issues.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, President Hu had extended invitations to 48 African countries which have diplomatic ties with China, and all those countries have confirmed that they will attend the summit.

The upcoming summit will be the highest-level and the largest meeting between Chinese and African leaders since China and African countries started to forge cooperative ties in the 1950s.