Senior General Than Shwe, also chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and General Soe Win, the prime minister, met separately with visiting Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in Yangon Thursday.

Both sides expressed wishes to further develop the traditional friendship and economic and trade cooperative ties between the two countries.

The Myanmar leaders said peoples of Myanmar and China have as always enjoyed the "paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship and for 55 years since the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, there have been frequent contacts at high levels, adding that the Myanmar-China ties, which were forged on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, have continued to be consolidated and developed.

Myanmar attaches great importance to its relations with China, the leaders stressed, saying that the Myanmar side wishes to enhance their economic and trade relations and cooperation in the sectors such as infrastructural construction and electric power, in accordance with the consensus reached between leaders of the two countries, so as to pass down the two countries' friendship generation by generation.

The leaders also reiterated Myanmar's adherence to the one-China policy and firm support to China's reunification cause, and expressed belief that the rapid development of China is conducive to the stability and development in the region.

During the meetings, Li said China and Myanmar are at present actively implementing the consensus of strengthening the neighborly and friendly cooperative ties reached between leaders of the two countries, expressing China's wishes to jointly strive with the Myanmar side to consolidate the traditional friendship and deepen their cooperation in the economic and trade sectors to raise the Sino-Myanmar relations to a new high.

The two sides also exchanged views over important international and regional issues.

Li arrived in Yangon on Wednesday evening for a 24-hour official visit from Vientiane, Laos after attending meetings of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its dialogue partners.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2005)