Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov met in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent Friday to exchange views on further deepening friendly cooperation between the two countries and other issues of common concern.

Hu is here for a state visit to Uzbekistan and an annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Berdymukhamedov is here also for the SCO summit, as a guest of the host country.

This was the second time the heads of state of China and Turkmenistan met this year. Berdymukhamedov paid a state visit to China in May and attended the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Expo.

In recent years, China and Turkmenistan have jointly worked for a rapid expansion of bilateral links in the spirit of strong mutual trust, mutual benefit and common development.

Leaders of the two countries have maintained close contact and a high degree of mutual trust. China and Turkmenistan have always firmly supported the other side on major issues concerning each other's core interests.

The two countries have carried out fruitful cooperation in the areas of the economy, trade, energy and culture. Hu visited Turkmenistan last December for the launch of a natural gas pipeline linking the two countries. The completion of the China-Central Asia gas pipeline marked the beginning of a new stage in the friendly cooperation between China and Turkmenistan.

The two countries have also maintained close coordination on regional and international issues.

Hu and Berdymukhamedov reached new consensus on further deepening the friendly, cooperative relations during their Shanghai meeting. Hu said the two countries should continue to increase contact so as to enhance mutual trust, deepen energy cooperation by utilizing each other's advantages, expand the scope of cooperation by carrying out all-round cooperation in non-energy sectors, strengthen cooperation on joint anti-terrorism operations, crack down on trans-border crime and develop law enforcement ability, and expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Hu will conclude his state visit to Uzbekistan and fly to Astana for a state visit to Kazakhstan later Friday.