President Hu Jintao meets with Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai

Chinese President Hu Jintao and his visiting Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai have held talks at the Great Hall of the People. How to expand trade and economic links were the top concern of their talks on Wednesday afternoon.

Karzai's delegation includes the foreign and defense ministers along with 20 leading business people. The two leaders exchanged exchange views on strengthening political relations, deepening mutual trust, and expanding economic and trade cooperation.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and his visiting Afghan counterpart  Hamid Karzai have held talks at the Great Hall of the People. How  to expand trade and economic links were the top concern of their  talks on Wednesday afternoon.

Hu Jintao said China highly values its friendship with Afghanistan. He noted that China hopes Afghanistan would be a country enjoys peace, stability, development as well as friendship with neighboring countries.

He stressed that China is willing to play an active part in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and will offer support within its capability.

Karzai admitted that security problems do exsit in his country. But he pledged that his government will overcome the difficulties to protect the safety and interests of all foreign enterprises doing business in his country.

He said Chinese enterprises are welcome to invest in the sectors of energy, mineral resources, railway and other infrastrucutre construction. This is already Karzai's 4th visit to China as the Afghan president. At present the volume of bilateral trade stands at a little over 200 million US dollars.