President Hu Jintao met with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
after the conclusion of the outreach session of the G8 summit on
Monday.
This is the first meeting between the two leaders after Prodi, a
former president of the European Commission, won the election in
Italy to head the Italian government earlier this year.
Hu said that China values its ties with Italy, vowing to lift
the bilateral cooperative relations to a higher level.
Prodi said building priority relations with China is an
important policy of his government, adding that he would push
forward bilateral ties and make Italy a vital cooperation partner
for China in Europe.
The two leaders also agreed to support the communication and
cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises from both
countries.
They said they would support bilateral culture exchange programs
like "the Year of Italy" in China.
(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2006)
