Beijing: Flourishing political interaction, uninterrupted dialogue channels and stronger mutual trust between China and India in 2003 helped in making "progress" in dealing with "problems left over from history", the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Observing that the visit of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to China in June 2003 was a "major event" in Sino-Indian relations, the Ministry in its just-released 'China's Foreign Affairs 2004 Edition' said, "progress was made in straightening out the problems left over from history".

"The visit went a long way towards improving China-India relations and opened a new page in the all-round cooperation between the two countries," it said. "Political interaction flourished with uninterrupted dialogue channels and stronger mutual trust," the annual report said.

On the Sino-India boundary issue, it noted, the two sides decided last year to designate special representatives to deal with the issue and explore a framework solution to the border issue.

While the yearbook did not comment on the boundary negotiations, it pointed out that the Year 2003 witnessed a "momentum of positive development in the friendly, good-neighbourly and mutually-beneficial cooperation between China and India". It also noted that in 2003, contacts between the two countries at the highest level in bilateral and multilateral occasions "abounded.