Venezuela and China held talks Thursday on ten new agreements involving cooperation in energy, mining, food and gas sectors, the state-run Venezolana de Television (VTV) reported.

China agreed to back Venezuela's 17 development projects by providing four billion U.S. dollars in credit loans via the China Development Bank (CDB), it said.

Vice President Elias Jaua, who attended the meeting, said they are all viable projects that would be completed in three years.

Since May 2010, the two countries have been mulling a series of non-oil projects in Venezuela, which will be financed by the CDB with a credit of 20 billion dollars.

Venezuela is China's fifth-largest trading partner in Latin America, and both countries have set up a bilateral investment fund of 12 billion U.S. dollars to finance their economic and manufacturing development.