"From a long-term perspective, there is huge growth potential for the bilateral trade and economic cooperation," he said.

China and Russia had effective long-term cooperation in a number of large projects from sectors such as oil, nuclear power, aviation and space, Yang added.

Last month, the two nations signed a oil-for-loan deal, under which China offered Russia US$25 billion of long-term loan and Russia would supply 300 million tonnes of oil through pipelines to China from 2011 to 2030.

The two sides had also agreed on the construction of a pipeline from Russia's Skovorodino in its far-eastern Amur region to China's northeastern city of Daqing.

During a visit to Russia last October, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin expressed satisfaction over the bilateral cooperation and agreed to optimize trade structure, stimulate two-way investment and regulate trade order.

The bilateral economic and trade cooperation was still in an initial stage, acknowledged Artem Semenov, chairman of the Association of National Companies Promoting the Development of Trade and Economic Relationship with China.

The two nations should make more efforts to push forward the bilateral trade cooperation to meet the annual two-way trade target of 60 billion to US$80 billion in 2010, Semenov said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2009)