Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji said that with joint efforts of both sides, his current visit to the United States would achieve positive results and help bring a sound and stable Sino-U.S. relationship into the 21st century.

He arrived in Los Angeles on the morning of April 6, opening an eight-day official visit to this country as guest of U.S. President Bill Clinton.

In a written statement upon arrival at the Los Angeles International Airport, Zhu said his visit is to build on the successful exchange of visits by President Jiang Zemin and President Clinton, implement the agreement they have reached, deepen mutual understanding, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and push forward China-U.S. relations further in the direction of a constructive strategic partnership.

"I am looking forward to exchanging views with President Clinton in Washington D.C. on China-U.S. relations and major international and regional issues of common interest and co-chairing with Vice President Gore the second China-U.S. Forum on Environment and Development in the coming week," the Chinese premier said in the statement.

Referring to the first stop of his visit, Zhu noted that exchanges and cooperation between California, especially Los Angeles, and China in the economic, trade, cultural, educational and other fields have been very vigorous in recent years.

With further improvement and growth of China-U.S. relations, Zhu said, California and Los Angeles will surely play a more important part in the bilateral friendly exchanges.