Beijing  - China on Tuesday praised the Sudanese government for its efforts to restore peace in the troubled Darfur region and offered support on "any issues helpful for the country's peace, stability and development."

"We are delighted to see the progress made by Sudan to properly solve the Darfur issue and to promote the peace process between the north and the south of the country," Zhou Yongkang, a senior leader of China's ruling Communist Party, told Sudan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ali Ahmed Karti.

"We applaud Sudan's firm support in issues concerning our core concern," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Zhou as saying.

China would "support Sudan in any issues helpful for the country's peace, stability and development", said Zhou, who is China's top public security official and a member of the party's nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo.

Zhou said China would speed up implementation of an oil cooperation agreement and "actively study" expanding agricultural cooperation, the agency reported.

Karti was quoted as saying Sudan was "grateful for China's help" and hoped to expand cooperation in agriculture and other sectors "in a bid to benefit the two peoples".

Zhou said diplomatic relations between China and Sudan, which began 50 years ago, were a "successful example for cooperation between developing nations, and brought tangible benefits for the two peoples".

He hoped Sudan would "achieve new progress in economic growth and people's livelihood," the agency said.

It said bilateral trade was valued at 8.2 billion dollars last year.

A fragile peace has held between northern and southern Sudan since the end of a 21-year civil war in 2005, but a recent upsurge in deadly tribal clashes in the south has raised fears of a return to large-scale conflict.

The north has been buying weapons - most of which are used in the restive Darfur province - from China.

China has invested billions of dollars in Sudan, particularly in the oil sector, and has been steadfast in defending the Islamic regime there, angering Western governments, human rights groups and political opposition parties.

According to the United Nations, as many as 300,000 people have died and 2 million have been displaced in six years of conflict in Darfur.

Karti visited Myanmar and Vietnam before China, Chinese state media said.(dpa)