Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Ababarkar Tuesday jointly met with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan in Lagos.

They had in-depth talks on bilateral relations and some African and international issues of common interest.

Reviewing his pleasant experience during his visit to China last year, Obasanjo extended his warm welcome to Tang's visit to Nigeria at the beginning of the new millennium.

The president highly appreciated China's efforts to successfully feed its 1.2 billion people, which he described as a great miracle in the world history.

Obasanjo reaffirmed Nigeria's stand of "One China" policy, stressing that the policy is one of its basic principles handlingits relations with China and will remain unchanged.

Tang, who arrived here on Monday, said the ties between China and Nigeria have been growing smoothly since the two countries established diplomatic relations 29 years ago.

He said that China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and Nigeria, as newly elected Chairman of the 77-groupand member country of the UN Human Rights Committee, have sharedmany common views and important responsibility in the field ofinternational affairs.

China has attached importance to Nigeria's role in theinternational arena and appreciated the efforts that Nigeria hasmade in maintaining regional peace and stability in Africa, Tang said.

He said that China would like to reinforce consultations and cooperation in the fields of human rights and South-South cooperation with the most populous African country.

During his stay in the country, the Chinese foreign minister held talks with Nigerian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dubem Onyia.

The two also signed a memorandum of understanding on the establishment of consultation mechanism between the foreign ministries of the two countries.

Tang is on a five-nation African tour. He is scheduled to leave Nigeria on Wednesday to continue his visit. (Xinhua)