French President Nicolas Sarkozy will pay a state visit to China from April 28 to 30, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Thursday.

Sarkozy will pay his three-day China visit as guest of Chinese President Hu Jintao, said Jiang at a regular news briefing.

Sarkozy will kick off his visit from Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and attend the opening ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo scheduled on April 30, said Jiang.

President Hu, top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao will meet with Sarkozy respectively during his visit, and the leaders of the two countries "will have in-depth exchange of views on further improvement of China-France all-round strategic partnership as well as international and regional issues of mutual concern," said Jiang.

"This year, China-France relationship is facing new opportunity of development," said Jiang, hoping the two countries to keep increasing political trust, deepening mutually beneficial cooperation and stepping up coordination on major international and regional issues in a bid to push forward bilateral ties in a healthy and stable manner.