Beijing - The premiers of China and Qatar vowed Thursday to expand trade, energy and other links, as the two nations signed an agreement for Qatar to supply China with 2 million tons of liquified natural gas annually.

"The focus of our cooperation will be in energy," state television quoted Premier Wen Jiabao as telling Qatar Prime Minister Hamed bin Jasim bin Jabor al-Thani in Beijing.

"We will encourage mutual investment, expand the scale of cooperation in trade, culture, education, tourism, aviation, and have closer cooperation on international and regional issues," Wen said.

State television quoted the Qatar leader as saying the two nations had made a "good breakthrough" in energy recently and should strengthen industrial cooperation.

The two sides also signed an inter-governmental agreement to expand energy cooperation, after talks timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the opening of formal diplomatic ties between Qatar and China.

The state-run China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) signed the agreement that would "lead to the long-term supply" of liquefied natural gas from Qatar, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The agency did not give the length of the agreement or other details, saying only that China would import 2 million tons of LNG annually from Qatar.(dpa)