China's top political advisor, Jia Qinglin, Saturday pledged to upgrade trade ties with Japan, urging greater cooperation in key areas, including energy efficiency, environmental protection and intellectual property rights.

"China and Japan are highly compatible in economic structure, and should seize favorable opportunities to lift bilateral trade cooperation to a higher level," Jia, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, said.

Jia was speaking to Japanese delegates who were in Beijing after attending the 13th China-Japan economic seminar, which was held on Friday in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province.

He said the seminar, co-hosted by China's People's Daily and Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspapers, had set a successful example for cooperation between mainstream media of both sides, and made positive contribution to the growth of mutually beneficial strategic ties.

Calling economic and trade cooperation an important foundation to build ties, he called on both sides to strengthen cooperation in key areas such as energy efficiency, environmental protection, finance, information and intellectual property rights.

Tsuneo Kita, president of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, said Japanese economic circles were committed to boosting Japan-China friendship and would push forward bilateral trade cooperation.

The seminar, founded in 1984, has been convened on 12 previous occasions. This year's meeting focused on the topic of China-Japan trade cooperation to boost world economic growth.