Iran's President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed in Tehran Sunday his willingness to develop ties with China.  

Ahmadinejad made the remarks while answering a question on bilateral relation between Iran and China raised by Xinhua at his first press conference since his election win on Friday.

The president-elect told Xinhua that he knows China very well and wants to develop ties with China during his term as president.

"I know China very well. During my term of office as Tehran mayor, I had frequent contacts with many Chinese companies cooperating with us, through which I have become quite familiar with China and the Chinese people," Ahmadinejad said.

"Iran is intended to promote relations with all amicable countries in the world, including China," Ahmadinejad stressed.

He, meanwhile, told the press conference that "Iran is on a path of progress and elevation, and does not really need the US on this path."

"The foreign policy of the government is justice, peace and co-existence, and the expansion of mutual, just relations," he said.

Ahmadinejad, a representative of the ultra-conservatives in Iran, defeated pragmatic former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani with a landslide win in the ninth presidential election runoff on Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2005)