China says to maintain trade cooperation with Iran

"Iran is an important trade partner of China's in western Asia and North Africa and one of the country's main oil suppliers. Bilateral economic and trade cooperation has achieved fruitful results," state television paraphrased Li as telling minister Massoud Mirkazemi.

"China is willing to work hard with Iran, continue to push mutual political trust, and maintain communication, dialogue and coordination on important international issues, to maintain regional and global peace, stability and prosperity," Li added.

"The key point is to solidly push forward existing cooperative projects, to ensure they are put into effect smoothly, to deepen bilateral pragmatic cooperation and promote the continued development of bilateral ties," he added.

State television showed pictures of the meeting, in the Communist Party's headquarters in central Beijing, on its main evening news.

Mirkazemi said he hoped that "both sides would create conditions to push forward existing projects," the brief report added, without elaborating.