Zhu made the remarks during his meeting with former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and other delegates from China and Japan to a forum for the promotion of Sino-Japanese cooperation at government, business and educational levels.

The forum should be conducive to bilateral mutual understanding of the two peoples, the Chinese premier said.

Noting the noticeable progress scored in bilateral friendly and cooperative relations since the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations three decades ago, Chinese and Japanese delegates held that the two countries should explore new ways and new fields of cooperation in the new century based on experiences and lessons drawn from the past 30 years, for the peace and development of Asia and the world at large.

The forum to promote Sino-Japanese cooperation at government, business and educational levels opened in Beijing on Thursday.

The forum, co-sponsored by the People's Daily of China and Venture Forum of Japan, is part of activities to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

About 300 officials, experts and entrepreneurs attended the forum and discussed such subjects as telecommunications, finance, and the service industry.

The forum provided a good opportunity for people, especially business people, of the two countries to understand each other, said Wang Guangying, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China.

China is now Japan's second largest trading partner and Japan is China's top trading partner.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori predicted a trade expansion in the future. He said no matter what difficulty might occur during the course of cooperation, there was always a way to solve it as long as both sides showed respect and understanding for each other.

( July 5, 2002)