BEIJING - High-speed railways will become a new highlight of China-Kazakhstan cooperation, along with the energy sector, agreed the two nations' top leaders in Beijing on Tuesday.

Witnessed by President Hu Jintao and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev, a total of eight deals were signed including the construction of a high-speed railway connecting the Kazakh capital city of Astana and its business hub Almaty, and cooperation in energy, financial and judicial sectors.

During an hour-long meeting, Hu called for the two countries to push forward bilateral cooperation and ensure the efficient and safe operation of Sino-Kazakh oil pipelines.

He also called for the speeding up of the construction of the second phase of oil and natural gas pipelines linking the two nations, and for further cooperation in non-energy fields such as high-tech and transportation.

According to the Associated Press, Kazakhstan will supply China with uranium under a contract worth $7 billion, which is part of a cooperation program with Guangdong Nuclear Power Co.

The report said Export-Import Bank of China will grant a $1 billion loan to finance the construction of an oil refinery in the Kazakh city of Atyrau, on the Caspian Sea.

Xing Guangcheng, an expert on Central Asian and Russian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China and Kazakhstan have made concrete progress in economic cooperation in recent years.

"There is still much potential for energy cooperation between the two nations," said Xing.

"Railway cooperation will bring China and Kazakhstan even closer," Xing said, adding that "China has competitive high-speed railway technology which Kazakhstan is interested in".

"High-speed railways will become a new highlight of the two countries' cooperation," Vice-Premier Wang Qishan told a luncheon co-hosted with Nazarbayev and attended by business representatives from both nations.

Nazarbayev is on a three-day visit to China, which ends on Wednesday after traveling on the Beijing-Tianjin high-speed railway that has shortened the traveling time between the two cities to 30 minutes.

Nazarbayev sees good prospects for the two nations' transportation infrastructure cooperation, saying that he hopes Kazakhstan will be a bridge for China's trade with European nations.

The distance between Astana and Brussels, headquarters of the European Union, is 3,500 km, which is the same as that between Astana and Beijing, he noted.

"I believe this advantageous geographical location will further enhance the two nations' transportation infrastructure cooperation," he said.

With the rapid development of roads and railways in Kazakhstan, "Chinese companies can transport products to relevant countries via Kazakhstan using our infrastructure," Nazarbayev said.

He added that Kazakhstan not only sees China as a strategic partner politically, but also an important trade partner.

Bilateral trade has grown nearly 13 times in the past 10 years, and more than 1,000 Chinese businesses are operating in Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev added.

China Daily