The Sino-Russian cooperation in energy and natural resources fields has great potential to tap and enjoys broad prospect, said Chinese President Hu Jintao Wednesday.

Hu made the remarks when addressing the high-level Sino-Russian economic forum held in Beijing.

Hu urged the two sides to proceed from long-term perspectives and heed the other's interests when carrying out energy cooperation.

Such mutually beneficial cooperation should boost economic development of the two countries while maintaining the stability in the international market, he said.

He urged the two sides to shift the cooperation pattern from the current trade-centered mode to one focusing on production and processing.

Russia has become one of China's major energy suppliers. Russian President Putin said that relevant enterprises of the two countries have agreed to study the possibility of building a branch pipeline from Russia's oil-rich Siberia to China.

With the implementation of the project, "the crude oil supply to China will definitely see increase," he said.

China and Russia on Tuesday inked three deals on oil and natural gas cooperation following the talks between Hu and Putin.

The three documents include a principled agreement between the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the Russian oil company of Rosneft for forming joint ventures on further oil cooperation.

A memorandum of understanding between CNPC and Russia's natural gas company Gazprom for natural gas supply to China and a summary of negotiations between CNPC and Transneft, a pipeline transport company of Russia were also signed.

Source: Xinhua