LOS ANGELES - Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping, who is here on the last leg of his visit to the United States, met California Governor Jerry Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Friday.

During the meeting, Xi called for closer city- and provincial-level cooperation between the two countries.

Xi said city- and provincial-level exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have made steady progress and played a positive role in promoting the overall development of the bilateral cooperative partnership.

He also said his visit aims at further implementing the important consensus reached by the two countries' presidents and communicating extensively with the US public so as to promote a China-US cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.

Xi said he believed his visit has been a "full success."

He urged the two sides to further advance city- and provincial-level cooperation through the platforms of the China-US Governors Forum and the forum of the US-China Initiative on City-Level Economic Cooperation launched last year.

The two sides should stick to the principle of mutual respect and mutual benefit, respect each other's major interests and solve differences properly through negotiations and on the basis of equality and mutual understanding, he said.

For their part, Brown and Villaraigosa said bilateral ties have made tremendous progress over the past 40 years.

They expressed their willingness to further broaden cooperation between California, Los Angeles and China, increase investment and expand people-to-people exchanges so as to bring benefits to more people on both sides.

US Vice-President Joe Biden later joined Xi for a luncheon hosted by Villaraigosa.

On this occasion, Biden said Xi's attaching such great importance to China-US ties and his special visit to Iowa to reunite with his old friends from 27 years ago are very touching.

Biden said he is willing to work together with Xi to build stronger and better US-China ties and advance the bilateral strategic cooperative partnership.

Also on Friday, Xi and Biden met the governors from seven Chinese provinces, five US states and one US territory.

During the meeting, Xi said economic and trade ties between the two countries have evolved over the past decade. Both sides have also witnessed notable progress in exchanges and cooperation in education, culture, tourism and other sectors, he said.

So far, the two countries have established 38 sister province/state and 176 twin city relationship.

Exchanges and cooperation between the two sides have brought tangible benefits to the peoples of both countries, Xi said.

He also said he hoped China and the United States will continue to enhance cooperation in economy, trade, investment, science and technology, education, people-to-people exchanges and tourism to stimulate economic growth and create jobs in both countries.

This cooperation is significant as it will not only benefit the peoples of both countries, but also promote a strong, sustained and coordinated development of the world economy, he said.

He said he hoped the city- and provincial-level leaders of the two countries will join hands to promote the further development of bilateral ties and achieve more mutual benefits and win-win results.

Biden also addressed the meeting, saying it reflected the broad and shared interests of the two countries at large, and of the provinces and states in particular.

Over the past years, he said the exports of most US states to China saw a big surge, with some states even registering a 400-percent rise in exports to China.

This has fully demonstrated that China's development conforms to the US interest, Biden said, calling the US-China relationship the most important in the world.

There are broad prospects for bilateral cooperation, which will not only benefit both countries but ultimately the world, he added.

Xi arrived in Washington Monday for a five-day visit. The United States is the first leg of his three-nation tour, which will also take him to Ireland and Turkey.