Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), will pay an official goodwill visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK), Austria, Spain and Portugal from Aug. 26 to Sept. 10, CPPCC sources said Thursday.

Jia is invited by Kim One Ki, speaker of the ROK National Assembly, Anna Elisabeth Haselbach, president of the Austrian Parliament, Javier Rojo, president of the Spanish Senate, and MotaAmaral, president of the Assembly of Portugal.

The CPPCC is China's top advisory body, consisting of representatives of the Communist Party of China, non-Communist parties, personages without party affiliation, and representatives of people's organizations, national minorities and all social strata.

The main functions of the CPPCC are to conduct political consultation, exercise democratic supervision and participate in the discussion and the handling of state affairs.

Jia Qinglin, a native of Botou, northern China's Hebei Province, was born in March 1940. He assumed his current post in March 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2004)