Prosperous Russia-China relations benefited the European Union, visiting European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Friday.

"We believe the development of Russia-China relations is, in principle, in the EU interests," Barroso told reporters following his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The EU official said he believed a stable and prosperous Russia would be "good for its partners and neighbors."

Confirming Russia and China had a "special partnership", Medvedev said he was "quite optimistic regarding our partnership with the EU as well as the future of our relations with China."

He also said the talks with the EU delegation were open, intense and constructive "although we argued from time to time over some issues."

Russia and the EU have signed a road map of energy cooperation until 2050 and several agreements on humanitarian cooperation, but the sides failed to achieve substantial progress on other areas, such as Visa-free travel. Endi