Visiting Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao was awarded the Highest Distinction Honor Medal by France's Central School of Lyon on Friday.

The award was presented by Jean Dorey, director of the renowned French school. Welcoming Hu to visit the school, Dorey expressed his hope that the cooperation between his school and universities in China will expand.

Accepting the award, Hu said that exchanges in the area of education between China and France have a long history, for example, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese leaders, had studied in France.

He said he believed that Sino-French educational exchanges and cooperation will achieve more fruitful results in the new century through joint efforts.

The Central School of Lyon, which was set up in 1857 and regarded as one of the best engineering schools, is one of the four in the "group of central schools," which was formed in 1990. The other three are respectively located in Lille, Nante and Paris.

In 1996, the four schools of the group signed a framework agreement on cooperation with Tsinghua (Qinghua) University, Shanghai Communications University, Xi'an Communications University and South-West Communications University.

The agreement is called "4+4" program, under which about 65 Chinese students are currently studying in the four French schools.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2001)