CANNES, France - Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff met here Wednesday to discuss the expansion of bilateral cooperation.

During their meeting ahead of a G20 summit to be held here on Thursday and Friday, Hu and Rousseff also had an in-depth exchange of views on regional and international issues of common concern.

Chinese President Hu Jintao holds talks with Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff in Cannes ahead of a G20 summit Dec 2, 2011. [Photo/Xinhua]

Hu recalled that during Rousseff's visit to China in April, the two countries reached important consensus which strongly advanced the bilateral relations.

The two countries, Hu added, should deepen political mutual trust and fully utilize bilateral cooperation mechanisms.

China is willing to maintain close high-level contact with Brazil, and the two sides should map out a cooperation plan for the next decade so as to promote the bilateral relationship in a coordinated and strategic way, he said.

Hu said the two nations should further develop pragmatic cooperation and fully use their mutually complementary advantages in capital, technology and energy resources to earnestly push forward cooperation in all fields and achieve a win-win result.

Hu said the two countries should also strengthen policy coordination and strategic cooperation within multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the G20 in order to jointly safeguard the interests and rights of the developing countries.

Meanwhile, the two countries should also enhance cultural exchanges and people-to-people contact, the Chinese president added.

Rousseff, for her part, said Brazil attaches great importance to expanding relations with China and the two sides have continuously strengthened coordination and communication on major regional and international affairs.

She said Brazil and China share a huge potential of cooperation under the complicated international situation, saying her country is ready to work together with China to increase mutually beneficial cooperation in the areas of innovation, aviation, investment, environment, culture and education so as to continuously advance the bilateral strategic partnership.

The two presidents also exchanged views on the current global economic and financial situation, saying the BRICS countries and other emerging market economies should strengthen their coordination and cooperation as acute sovereign debt problems are troubling many developed countries, global inflation pressures are rising and the international financial markets are in turbulence.

China and Brazil established diplomatic ties in 1974 and set up a strategic partnership in 1993.

Brazil is China's major trading partner in Latin America. Last year, two-way trade between the two countries reached $62.5 billion. In the first nine months of 2011, the trade volume increased 37 percent against the same period of last year to $62.4.