Visiting top legislator Wu Bangguo in Wellington Thursday called for efforts to strengthen the links between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the New Zealand National Party, the country's opposition party.

In a meeting with Don Brash, leader of the New Zealand National Party, Wu also praised the party's long-standing efforts to develop relations with China.

Wu, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, said the National Party is an important political party in New Zealand and plays an important role in the country's political life.

During the 1990s when the National Party was in power, marked headway was made in the development of China-New Zealand relations, Wu said.

Strengthened links between the CPC and the National Party are conducive to the development of China-New Zealand relations as a whole, Wu said.

"We appreciate the National Party's long-standing one-China policy," he said. He expressed the hope that the National Party would continue to adhere to the one-China policy, oppose "Taiwan independence," and support China's great cause of reunification.

Wu also expressed the belief that the National Party, under the leadership of Brash, would make new contributions to the friendly exchanges between the two parties and the development of China-New Zealand relations.

Brash said developing bilateral relations conforms to the common interests of both sides and that his party's position on developing ties with China is identical with that of the Labor government.

He said his party has always attached importance to the development of relations with China and will continue its policy of developing friendly ties with China.

Wu is currently on a four-day official goodwill visit to New Zealand, the third leg of his four-nation Asia-Pacific tour, which will also take him to Malaysia. He had already visited Singapore and Australia.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2005)