The foreign minister referred to the Sino-Russian ties as "successful and Fruitful".

Li said the two sides had completely resolved their boundary issues left over from history during Russian President Putin's state visit to China last year. From then on, the Sino-Russian border line has become a border of "peace, friendship and cooperation".

This is beneficial to the peoples of both countries, and peace and stability in the region and the world, said Li.

Li said bilateral cooperation in such areas as economy, trade, culture, education and military have been developing steadily.

In addition, the two sides are conducting effective and substantive cooperation in more than 100 inter-state organizations, including the United Nations, and regional organizations including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

EU arms embargo on China "obsolete, useless"

The maintenance of the European arms embargo on China is "obsolete and useless", Li Zhaoxing said.

Chinese foreign minister on China-US relations

Li Zhaoxing said that Sino-US relations have being making headway as the two countries share extensive interests.

It is entirely helpful for the two countries to conduct mutual cooperation in a wide range for the benefits of the two peoples, said Li.

To ensure a healthy development, a long term and strategic view should be adopted, said Li. First of all, the view should be adopted to deal with the most sensitive issue in the Sino-US relations, that is, the Taiwan issue.

In other words, it is essential for the two countries to abide by principles in Sino-US joint communique, said the foreign minister.

Li also said that it is very likely for President Hu Jintao to attend the 60th anniversary celebration of the United Nations as UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has extended very warm invitations for many times for Hu to come to the UN headquarters and attend the celebration.

China opposes hegemonism, stressing peace, democracy

China opposes hegemonism and advocates peace, multi-lateralism and democracy in international relations, Li told the press conference..

The theme of our times is peace and development but hegemonism remains a threat, Li said, reviewing late senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's remarks on China's foreign policy of peace.

"We are against any country that practices hegemonism; we are against any country that commits aggression on others; we are fair in our words and in our deeds," he said.

China receives 52 heads of state, government in 2004

Li said that a total of 52 heads of state and government of foreign countries visited China in 2004.

"Over the past year we received 29 visiting heads of state and 23 heads of government of foreign countries," said Li.

Top Party and state leaders of China, including President Hu Jintao, top legislator Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao and Jia Qinglin, chairman of China's top advisory body, the Chinese People 's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), visited 34 countries across the world in 2004 to "make many good friends for their motherland", added the minister.

"It is very important for us to make friends in the international community as we are trying our best to implement the principle of 'doing diplomatic work for the people'," he explained.

China now has 235 diplomatic missions worldwide, with a total of 5,600-strong staff members. Among them, more than 3,200 are from his ministry, Li said.

China's energy import exerts limited impact on global oil price

China, both an energy consumer and producer, should not be responsible for the world's rising oil prices, Li said.

"Although China's energy import has increased a little bit over the past two years, its import only accounts for approximately 6 percent of the world's total traded oil," he said.

It's true that China's energy demand has increased to certain extent as the country's economy has been growing rapidly in recent years, he said, but the demand is mainly to be met domestically, he said.

Besides, he added, there is a big potential of saving energy and improving the use of energy efficiency in China's domestic energy supply.

Therefore, the media criticism saying that China is a major impact on the world's oil price is "groundless", he said.

Editor: Olivia