Chinese President Hu Jintao kicked off a three-day state visit to Ukraine on Saturday after his arrival in southern Ukraine.

Hu arrived in Simferopol by special plane and then traveled to Yalta by car.

During the visit, the first by a Chinese head of state in the last 10 years, Hu will meet with President Viktor Yanukovych and other Ukrainian leaders on further promoting bilateral ties and pragmatic cooperation.

The presidents of China and Ukraine "will sign a joint statement" to comprehensively lift the China-Ukraine relationship, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping told a press briefing earlier this month.

He said that the joint statement will map out future cooperation in politics, economy, security and culture, and a series of cooperative deals will be signed during Hu's visit.

"Hu's visit is a landmark in China-Ukraine relations," Cheng said.

China-Ukraine relations have developed steadily since the two nations established diplomatic ties in 1992. Bilateral cooperation in the sectors of economy, trade, science and technology have deepened remarkably in recent years.

Last September, Yanukovych paid a state visit to China and had talks with Hu. The two leaders expressed their willingness to lift the friendly and cooperative China-Ukraine relationship to a new level.

They also promised to strive to increase two-way trade volume to 10 billion U.S. dollars by 2012.

Last year, the two-way trade volume between China and Ukraine amounted to 7.7 billion dollars, a 33-percent increase year-on-year.

Meeting Ukrainian Prime Minister Mikola Azarov in China's Hainan two months ago, President Hu said China hopes the two countries could well implement major cooperative projects and improve cooperation in science, technology and agriculture.

He said the two countries should further expand people-to-people exchanges and strengthen cooperation and coordination in dealing with international and regional issues such as reforms on the United Nations, climate change and nuclear non-proliferation.

Hu flew in from Russia's St. Petersburg, where he attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Before that, Hu paid state visits to Russia and Kazakhstan and attended a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana.