Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Kenyan counterpart Raila Odinga pledged Friday to further bilateral and Chinese-African cooperation.

Wen hailed the China-Kenya ties during their half-hour meeting on the sideline of an international trade and investment fair which opened Friday morning in the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

"According to your speech this morning at the opening ceremony, I learned that your father is also a good friend of China," Wen told Odinga, appreciating his contribution to the development of bilateral ties.

Wen applauded the two countries' coordination on major international and regional issues, pledging to expand cooperation in such sectors as economy, trade and infrastructure construction, culture and society and to implement follow-up actions of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum Beijing summit in 2006.

It conforms with the fundamental interests of China and Africa to further their new-style strategic partnership, which will be conducive to world peace and sustainable development, Wen noted.

"China will increase its assistance to Africa, jointly cope with the global financial crisis and reach the Millennium Development Goals along with Africa," he said.

Odinga said China and Kenya have become sincere friends and partners and his country is full of confidence in China's development.

Kenya will learn from China's experiences, speed up cooperation with China in trade, economy, infrastructure construction, education and tourism fields, he said.

He appreciated China's role in supporting and helping the development of African states, pledged to work along with China to cope with global and regional challenges such as climate change and pirates.

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