Both Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Le Kha Phieu hailed an agreement on bilateral land boundary issue reached Friday as a "great achievement."

At their meeting held Friday, Phieu said the agreed-upon hopeful signing of a land boundary treaty later this month will be a key milestone in the bilateral relations and a manifestation of

mutual trust between the two sides.

Zhu attributed the achievement much to the political promotion by Jiang Zemin, general secretary of the Communist Party of China, and Phieu. The two leaders reached an important consensus in Beijing last February on the signing of a land boundary treaty within this year and settle the delimiting of boundaries in the Beibu Gulf next year, thus setting a guideline for the boundary negotiations.

He expressed the hope that the land boundary negotiation teams will speed up their preparation for the signing of the treaty within this year so that the two countries can enter the 21st century with a common land boundary of peace, friendship and cooperation.

The Chinese premier, who is on the third day of his four-day visit to Vietnam, said the relations between the two communist parties and the two countries have developed smoothly since the normalization of relationship eight years ago.

A constant exchange of high-level visits means the Sino-Vietnamese relations are becoming closer and closer, he said.

What is of special importance, Zhu said, is that Jiang and Phieu have set up a framework for bilateral relations in the new century -- with an overall point of view which features strategic

perspective and bilateral friendship.

This shows that the relations between the two parties and the two countries have entered a new historical phase of development, he pointed out.

Phieu said Vietnam will never forget the immense help China gave it during its course of national liberation and construction.

He reiterated the guiding principle he set with Jiang in Beijing last February, that is, the principle of building a future-oriented relationship of long-term stability, good-neighborliness and all-round cooperation.

This bespeaks a deep mutual trust between the two parties and the two countries, to which nothing can cause harm, he said.

Zhu and Phieu agreed that their countries can make up their own deficiencies by learning from each other and they should all the more strengthen their cooperation in the context of the complicated and complex regional and world situation nowadays.