Portuguese caretaker Prime Minister and Socialist Party leader Jose Socrates said on Saturday that his country attaches great importance to developing friendly and cooperative relations with China.

Socrates made the remarks during a meeting in northern coastal city Matosinhos with a Communist Party of China (CPC) delegation led by Wang Weilu, member of the standing committee of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee and secretary of Hainan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection

Socrates said the Portuguese government and his Party highly value the friendship and cooperation with China and the CPC and are closely watching China's development.

Socrates praised China's remarkable achievements in its reform and opening up drive and in its economic and social construction.

He stressed that his party would like to further advance its cooperation with the CPC, promote the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries so as to benefit the two countries and peoples.

At the invitation of the Portuguese Socialist Party, the CPC delegation arrived in Portugal on Friday to attend the Socialist Party's 17th national congress.

The Socialist government stepped down in late March after lawmakers rejected its austerity measures. Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva has accepted Socrates' resignation and called for fresh elections in early June.