Malaysia's Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Wednesday thanked China for the assistance given to Malaysia in overcoming its economic difficulties.

The assistance was valuable to Malaysia, the king told visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji in Kuala Lumpur during his audience with the latter.

The king said the relations between Malaysia and China were very good and the two countries had wonderful cooperation in various areas, particularly in the economic and trade fields.

He said Malaysia hoped to further strengthen its exchanges and cooperation with China in fields such as economy and trade, culture, agriculture and education.

The Chinese premier expressed his satisfaction over the stable and healthy development of the Sino-Malaysian relations in the past 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The present development of Sino-Malaysian relations is very good, there are frequent exchanges of visits at top levels between the two countries and there exist no problems between the two countries which need urgent solution, he said, adding that if there exist some problems, they could be solved properly through friendly consultations.

Zhu said the two countries made great progress in cooperation in many fields, especially in the economic and trade areas.

During his current visit, the two sides signed several documents which are conducive to further strengthening economic and trade cooperation as well as cultural cooperation, the Chinese premier said.

The Chinese premier said he was happy that Malaysia has overcome the financial crisis and achieved the economic recovery under the strong leadership of the Malaysian government and with the support of its people.