Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) meets with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak Friday, April 3, 2009 in London, where they attend the just-ended G20 Summit. [Photo: Xinhua]

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China is ready to work with South Korea to promote bilateral relations, said Chinese President Hu Jintao Friday at a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak in London.

Hu spoke highly of the sound development momentum for bilateral relations and expressed his satisfaction with it.

Hu said China and South Korea are important neighbors and cooperative partners, and the development of bilateral ties is not only in the fundamental interest of the two countries and their peoples, but also conducive to peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

The Chinese side attaches great importance to bilateral relations and will work with South Korea to give full play to their own advantages, further tap cooperative potentials and deepen substantial cooperation in various fields, said Hu.

The spreading international financial crisis brought about a decline of bilateral trade since the beginning of this year, said Hu, stressing that both sides should see the existing opportunities in the crisis and encourage enterprises to explore their potentials and strengthen cooperation.

"This is of positive significance to promoting economic growth of the two countries and the restoration of world economic growth," said Hu.

Hu and Lee attended here Thursday the Group of 20 financial summit, through which, in Hu's words, all parties expressed their resolve to jointly fight the crisis and made proposals in this regard.

"Now confidence and unity are more important than anything else and China will strengthen coordination and cooperation with the vast majority of developing countries in fighting the international financial crisis," said Hu.

Lee lauded China's effective measures to maintain economic growth under the current situation, saying it is not only conducive to China's own development but also very important to restoring world economic growth.

He said his country and China have close economic and trade relations, hoping that the two countries will continue to keep the sound momentum for trade growth, strengthen regional cooperation in east Asia, and jointly combat the international financial crisis.

They also exchanged views on such issues as the situation on the Korean Peninsula and climate change.