French President Jacques Chirac received Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan at the Elysee presidential palace Monday afternoon and had friendly and frank talks on bilateral relations and international issues of common concern.

Tang conveyed to Chirac the cordial regards from Chinese President Jiang Zemin and said that after the successful visit to France by Jiang last October, Chinese-French relations have been experiencing an increasingly good momentum of development.

For example, bilateral trade volume attained 6.7 billion U.S. dollars in 1999, the highest in history, said Tang.

The foreign minister also said that China and France have been strengthening cooperation over international issues, and that both countries support the process of forming a multipolar world

structure, which is good for world peace and stability.

On human rights issues, China and France prefer dialogue to confrontation, he said.

Tang said that there exists a wide perspective of cooperation between the two countries in future and the comprehensive partnership between China and France is facing an unprecedented

good opportunity of growth.

Tang also said that China is looking forward to a second state visit by Chirac.

He expressed his confidence that under common efforts, especially the personal care and promotion of the heads of state of both countries, China and France will have a full-blown

development of cooperation.

Chirac said that he is satisfied with the present situation of bilateral relations.

The French president said that France and China should further strengthen cooperation over major international issues.

He also said that France will maintain the policy of having dialogue with China over human rights issues.

Chirac asked Tang to convey his cordial regards to President Jiang,and said that he is looking forward to another visit to China in order to push French-Chinese relations to a higher level.

Tang arrived here for a stop-over visit on his way to Mauritania and Tunisia.

He is on a four-nation official visit which will also bring him to Kuwait and Iran.