Tom Albanese, president and chief executive officer of mining giant Rio Tinto Group, said Monday the company was committed to repairing and strengthening commercial ties with China.

The world's second-largest iron ore supplier's ties with China could be traced back 50 years as it had provided aluminum to China in the 1960s, Albanese said at the China Development Forum 2010 in Beijing.

"I have been working very hard as a strong priority to build on the relationship with China. For me, it is above the most importance that Rio Tinto and China can work together to find opportunities for cooperation," he said during an interview with Xinhua after the forum.

"We have seen over the past five years China shares our revenues quite dramatically, which grew to 29 percent in 2009," he said. "China will increasingly become a bigger and bigger part of the world's economy and an increasingly important part of our markets."

Speaking about Rio Tinto's strategy to restore relationships with China, Albanese said "there are many steps along the path and the memorandum of understanding with Chinalco on the Simandou project is a very important step along the way."

Rio Tinto and the Chinese state-owned aluminum producer Chinalco signed a non-binding agreement last week to set up a joint venture to develop the Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea, West Africa, with an estimated annual output of 70 million tonnes, all of which would be sold to China.

According to the agreement, Chinalco will invest 1.35 billion U.S. dollars for 44.65 percent stake in the joint venture, and Rio Tinto will hold 50.35 percent, while the other 5 percent will go to a third financial company.

Over the next several months, the Rio Tinto and Chinalco will work together to settle down the project by completing the definitive agreement and feasibility studies. Albanese did not detail the plan but said the two companies had set "an aggressive timetable".

Rio Tinto's ties with China were strained last year partly because of Chinalco's rejected deal and the arrest of four Rio Tinto employees.

The employees, including Australian national Stern Hu, were detained in August on allegations of bribery and stealing commercial secrets.

They are to stand trial in the Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court from Monday to Wednesday, according to a statement posted on the court's website.

Because of the issue, Albanese's trip to China, although not his first visit to the country, has made headlines on world media.

However, he refused to make any comment on the case.

In a statement last week, the company said it "understands that the sessions on receiving bribes will be held in open court and the sessions on stealing commercial secrets in closed court" and hoped for a transparent and expeditious process for its employees.

The CEO also shied away from question about this year's iron ore negotiation with China by saying "we always leave negotiations to negotiators".