Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain said Friday that Pakistan attaches great importance to the upcoming Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) to be held in Shanghai, China next week.

He made the remarks in an interview with the Chinese media at the Presidential Palace three days before he leaves for China to attend the summit.

"CICA is a very important regional forum that can promote regional peace, security and stability among the member countries, " the president told Xinhua, adding that Pakistan fully shares the goal of CICA.

He said Pakistan expects that the member countries would further strengthen this forum and find ways to implement its ideals and guiding principles into political and economic realities for the benefit of the entire region.

As China is going to take over the CICA presidency from 2014 to 2016, Pakistan would like to extend the warmest felicitations, Hussain said.

China is going to play a very important role in CICA, he said, adding he hopes the regional stability and cooperation will be significantly improved with China taking the chair of CICA.

Pakistan is confident that the Shanghai summit will be a great success, he noted.

The Shanghai summit, to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, is expected to be the largest ever in the history of CICA. It will be the fourth CICA summit. Endi