In a congratulatory message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il on the 60th founding anniversary of the Workers Party of Korea, Hu said he wanted to take cooperation to "a new high", Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Communist Party of China (CPC) will make continued efforts to promote the friendly relations and cooperation between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to a new high," he was cited as saying.

He said the relationship served the fundamental interests of both sides and was "conducive to maintaining peace and stability in the region".

"The CPC always cherishes the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK and has set it as a consistent policy to continuously strengthen and develop the China-DPRK friendship," Hu said.

Hu has dispatched Vice Premier Wu Yi and Commerce Minister Bo Xilai to the Stalinist state for the anniversary celebrations, but also to talk with Kim about the North's nuclear weapons ambitions.

In announcing Wu's visit last month, China's foreign ministry said Beijing would like to see more progress in six-party talks on the issue.

The latest round ended in Beijing last month with Pyongyang agreeing to a statement of principles on abandoning its atomic weapons in return for energy and security guarantees.

But the North has since warned it will not dismantle its nuclear arsenal until the United States delivers light-water reactors to allow it to generate power.

Wu met Kim on Saturday and conveyed "a verbal personal message" from Hu, the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency said.

In return, Kim said "the DPRK will never forget the unselfish aid provided by the Chinese side", Xinhua reported. China is impoverished North Korea's largest donor of aid.

Most recently, Beijing funded the Tae-an Friendship Glass Factory, which was officially opened Sunday in a ceremony attended by Kim and Wu.

Kim Yong-Nam, president of the North Korean parliament, said at a banquet to mark the event that it was "a new monument in the history of the DPRK-China friendship, proving that the traditional friendship has a strong vitality in the new era".

Xinhua categorised the factory, which covers hundreds of thousands of square meters, as "a symbol of the DPRK-China friendship".

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