The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has seen substantial fruits and refreshed the half-century bilateral ties, African leaders said at a closed-door roundtable of the historic diplomatic event on Sunday.

Leaders of China and 48 African countries exchanged views on regional and international issues of common concern during the two- day summit that concluded Sunday afternoon and adopted unanimously the FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (2007-2009) and the FOCAC Beijing Summit Declaration, which called for a new type of strategic partnership aiming for strengthened mutual trust and economic cooperation.

Heads of African delegations expressed their opinions and made proposals on how to bolster collaboration in an all-round way during the roundtable, to which Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered a speech.

African leaders said the summit was "fruitful" and attributed the success to the time-cemented friendship, adding that the forum mechanism provides a solid platform for dialogue and cooperation.

Chinese President Hu Jintao's pledge on Saturday responded effectively to the concerns of African people, they said, expressing appreciation of China's assistance over the past half century.

The package of preferential policies covering aid, trade, investment and social development for Africa announced by Hu was applauded by African leaders.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the Summit, Hu pledged China will double aid, provide 5 billion U.S. dollars of preferential loans and buyers' credits to Africa, exempt more debts by poor African countries, further open China's market to the continent, and help its infrastructure facility construction.

The leaders said that China's unswerving support to Africa's development and its pragmatic approach when dealing with African affairs are very inspiring.

They said that the cooperation between China and Africa has been evolving under the principles of mutual respect, non- interference of each other's internal affairs and mutual benefit.

China-Africa cooperation enjoys huge potential and stands as an effective means to protect and boost cultural diversity, they noted.

Chinese companies signed on Sunday morning 14 commercial contracts and agreements worth nearly 1.9 billion U.S. dollars with 11 African nations covering natural resources, infrastructure, finance, technology and communications.

Source: Xinhua