Pakistan's Musharraf to visit China
(AFP/Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-09 17:03

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will visit China this month as part of events to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the two nations establishing diplomatic ties, the foreign ministry said.

Musharraf will hold talks with President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese leaders during his February 19-23 visit, ministry spokesman Kong Quan said on Thursday.

"This is a very important state visit because China and Pakistan are friendly neighbors. We share an all-weather friendship and all dimensional cooperation," Kong said.

Several agreements will be signed, Kong said, but he did not elaborate.

The visit follows Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's trip to Islamabad in April last year, when 20 military, trade and other agreements were signed.

Besides attending a large scale gala event in Beijing to mark the 55th anniversary of the establishment of ties, Musharraf will visit the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, Kong said.

China welcomes Iran-Russia nuclear talks

China said on Thursday it welcomed nuclear talks between Iran and Russia planned for next week to defuse a crisis over Tehran's atomic program.

"We hope that this Russian invitation to Iran to hold talks on the 16th about participating in an international uranium enrichment center will help break, or encourage a break, in the current stalemate over the Iranian nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a regular news conference.

The deputy head of Iran's National Security Council would lead Tehran's delegation to the talks in Moscow next week, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported earlier.