Fiji President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau said on Thursday he was quite impressed by the Shanghai Expo and termed it as the most successful expo.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Nailatikau said he went to Shanghai and attended the Shanghai Expo China Day celebrations on Oct. 1.

"The Shanghai Expo is the most successful expo ever, with the biggest in amount area, the most countries participating, the biggest in visitor numbers. I was greatly impressed by Shanghai Expo," he said.

Nailatikau said, during his visit to China as Fiji foreign minister in 2007, that he visited the Shanghai Expo construction site. He was quite impressed by the high efficiency in building the expo pavilions.

"It was awesome," he said.

Nailatikau, who has visited China six times, said China is a modern big country with great ancient civilization. It was unbelievable for China's high economic growth. "You saw bulidngs going up everywhere. The Chinese government and people have been moving foreward to developing the economy," he said.

On the eve of the 35th anniversary of the full establishment of diplomatic relations which falls on Nov. 5, Nailatikau said Fij- China relations are close and strong.

"Our relationship is strong and close. And we both work at it," said the president.

He said Fiji has numberous advantages in attracting Chinese investments, and the benefits are also the same. Both the Fiji prime minister and foreign minister have visited China in the past months.

"We are working on with the chinese counterparts to attracting Chinese investments," he said.