The Sino-Indian relations are "at prime time now", said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in a recent interview with Press Trust of India.

He will begin his visit to India on Saturday, whose trip coincides with the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

"There is no fundamental conflicts between China and India and both sides need to learn from each other," Wen told the Indian media in Beijing.

China and India, the world's two most populous nations and fast growing economies, have improved their relations dramatically in recent years.

Bilateral trade soared to 13.6 billion US dollars in 2004, 13 times the volume of ten years ago. India is China's largest trade partner in South Asia while China has become India's second largest export market and third import market.

"The economic and trade relations have developed rapidly with cooperation fields widened and contents deepened," said Wen. "There exist great potentials for such relationship," Wen added.

The Sino-Indian relations are following the track of sustained, healthy and mature development and have entered a new stage of all-round cooperation, said Wen.

Both nations, viewing each other as important cooperative partner, continue to enhance political trust and pledge to uphold the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and fairly and reasonably settle the "issue left over by history" through equal consultations, said Wen.

Besides, the premier said, the two countries have made new progress in cooperation in trade, culture, technology, education, tourism and international affairs and are all confident of their future relations.

"The prosperity of China and India represents not only the rise of the whole Asia, but also the progress of the developing countries," Wen said, describing the two countries as sincere friends instead of rivals.

"The common development and friendship between China and India are in the interests of the two peoples," the premier said.

Premier Wen's India visit will come up with a series of important agreements in various fields.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2005)