Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Vietnam next week aims to boost bilateral relations under the principle of "long-term stability, future orientation, good-neighborly friendship and all-round cooperation," a Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

Le Dung told a regular press briefing that President Hu will pay an official visit to Vietnam from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 at the invitation of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nong Duc Manh and Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong.

The two sides will discuss directions for promoting bilateral cooperation in various fields, especially in economy, trade and investment, he said.

The leaders are also scheduled to sign some economic cooperation agreements on railway signal system installation, credit for thermoelectric plant construction, and heavy industry development in Vietnam.

The two sides will also discuss international and regional issues of mutual concern, he said.

The bilateral relations have been broadened and strengthened in many fields, bringing about benefits for the two peoples, he said.

At a recent meeting of the China-Vietnam Joint Committee on Economic and Trade Cooperation, the two sides agreed to boost their economic and trade cooperation and fulfill a two-way trade target of 15 billion US dollars by 2010.

Bilateral trade, which stood at 6.74 billion dollars in 2004, is expected to reach 8 billion dollars this year.

Source: Xinhua