After the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of cooperation documents between the two countries, which included the agreement to designate Canada as a destination of overseas travel by Chinese citizens.

At present, China is Canada's second largest trading partner while Canada is China's 13th trading partner. In 2009, two-way trade between the two countries reached 29.7 billion U.S. dollars.

Later Thursday at a banquet hosted in his honor by Harper, Hu called for developing the China-Canada strategic partnership in an all-round manner, saying a "sound, stable, positive and growing" relationship serves the interests of both countries, the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large.

He put forward proposals for promoting the comprehensive development of the China-Canada strategic partnership, which was set up in 2005, calling for efforts to increase high-level exchanges, push forward practical cooperation in all fields and explore new ways and means of cooperation, intensify coordination on major international and regional issues and others.

The president singled out trade and economic cooperation as a key component of China-Canada relations, calling on the two countries to tap their great potential and lift bilateral trade and economic cooperation to a higher level.

Harper said the strategic partnership between Canada and China has been growing steadily since Hu's visit to Ottawa in 2005. He pledged to work with China to build stronger ties.

Earlier in the day, Hu also met with Canada's opposition leader Michael Ignatieff. Both sides expressed the hope that the strategic partnership between Canada and China would be further expanded.

On Thursday, Hu also met with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He thanked Chretien for his contribution to the development of China-Canada relations and hoped that Chretien would continue to work to advance bilateral links.

Chretien said he was delighted to see the expansion of bilateral ties and that he was willing to continue to promote bilateral cooperation in all fields.

The Chinese president arrived in Ottawa on Wednesday for a three-day state visit to Canada. He will fly to Toronto to attend a summit of the G20 on Friday.