Chinese top advisor Jia Qinglin said in Beijing Wednesday that China will strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the Austrian Parliament to promote relations between the two countries.

Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top advisory body, made the remarks in his meeting with a delegation of the Austrian parliament's Federal Council headed by the council's vice-president Anna Elisabeth Haselbach.

Jia said that ties between China and Austria were solid and bilateral cooperation continues to boom in the fields of culture, tourism and environmental protection.

China attaches importance to its ties with Austria and highly appreciates the new Austrian government's friendly policies to China and its one-China stance, Jia said.

Jia also highlighted the important role played by the CPPCC and the Federal Council in promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, pledging the CPPCC would further its cooperation with the Federal Council and contribute to the long-term, stable development of the bilateral relations.

Haselbach noted that contacts and exchanges between the two parliaments and two peoples had grown in an increasingly globalized world.

She said the Federal Council would work with the CPPCC to cement bilateral relations.

CPPCC vice-chairman Xu Kuangdi also met the delegation.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2007)