China and Arab countries must strengthen dialogue and cooperation, Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo told visiting Arab officials attending a cooperation forum on Tuesday.

Dai said it was a good timing to expand relations between China and Arab countries, as they took the same strategic choice of promoting a new type of partnership of peace and sustainable development.

He said the forum, established in 2004, had helped deepen friendship and boost cooperation, and promote mutual understanding.

China supported the Arab countries’ cause for justice, and would work together to push forward friendly cooperation, said Dai.

Abdel Moneim Mabrouk, Sudanese ambassador to the League of Arab States(LAS) and co-chairman of the forum, said Arab countries valued relations with China, and the forum had become a platform for cooperation.

He said Arab countries supported China’s territorial integrity and reunification.

The two-day cooperation forum between China and the Arab countries convened Tuesday morning in Beijing, focusing on cooperation during the economic crisis.

A Communist Party of China (CPC) senior leader has aired satisfaction over China-Jordan trade ties and called for stronger cooperation.

In a meeting late Monday with Jordan’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Suheir Al-Ali, He Guoqiang, China’s anti-graft chief, said Jordan was China’s important cooperation partner in the Middle East.

“China attaches great importance to ties with Jordan and is satisfied with the continued growth of bilateral trade cooperation,” said He, who is member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Jordan’s trade with China hit about 360 million U.S. dollars in the first quarter this year, only next to Saudi Arabia and the United States, according to Jordan’s official statistics.

The senior CPC leader said China would like to make joint efforts with Jordan to upgrade and widen bilateral cooperation in a substantive manner.

Suheir Al-Ali said China’s economic boom was a paradigm of nations’ economic growths in the world. She said Jordan could learn a lot from the fact that China’s economy kept a stable growth despite the global slump. She also appreciated China’s long-term support to Jordan.

In another meeting with Chairman of the Jordan Investment Board(JIB) Maen Nsour, He praised that JIB had done a good job in improving Jordan’s investment environment and attracting foreign capital.

He mentioned Chinese businesses’ “going abroad initiative,” saying it not only boosted their own growths, but also promoted the employment and economic development of destination countries.

Nsour said Jordan admired China’s great achievements and valued bilateral friendship and cooperation. He said his country would continue to improve its investment environment, enhance communication with Chinese companies in an effort to strengthen bilateral trade, investment and cooperation in other fields.

He arrived in Amman Sunday night, following his visits to Egypt and Spain. His fortnight foreign trip will also take him to Mongolia.