Hamburg (Germany), Nov 29 (IANS): China is willing to join hands with Europe to fully tap the potential of mutually beneficial cooperation and push the relationship between the two sides to a new level, a senior Chinese official said.

Wan Gang, China's minister of science and technology, told the Hamburg summit that the relationship between China and Europe has become one of the most important in the world, reported Xinhua.

Founded in 2004, the biennially-held Hamburg summit has become an important dialogue platform for the economic cooperation between China and Europe.

"The economic and trade cooperation between the two sides has brought substantive benefits to both parties," said Wan.

Wan said that the international financial crisis and European debt crisis have deepened the inter-dependence of Chinese and European economies, adding that the cooperation has played a positive role in uplifting the gloomy world economy.

He said the recently concluded 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has charted a course for the future development of China and set an ambitious goal of building a well-off society in all aspects in China by 2020, Wan said.

"The industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization in China have provided broader rooms for future development of China and its cooperation with foreign countries," he said, adding that China will unswervingly uphold and deepen the policy of opening-up and reform.

He stressed that China and Europe should deepen the cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, science and technology, which is mutually beneficial.