Tuesday, July 4 2006 13:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: India and China have decided to rev up the role of inter-parliamentary groups to further boost the goodwill in bilateral ties.

Visiting Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee and his Chinese counterpart, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), Wu Bangguo reached a consensus here last evening on stepping up efforts of the Inter-country Parliamentary Friendship Groups.

"We have agreed to step up our efforts to enhance India-China friendship and as parliamentarians, we have a role to play in this," Chatterjee told reporters after his over one-hour talks with Wu, also ranked No.2 in the hierarchy of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).

He said both sides agreed that parliamentary interaction constitutes an important part of state-to-state relationship, and that strengthening parliamentary interaction in bilateral and multilateral areas helps increase mutual understanding and trust, expand consensus and promote cooperation.

The visit of the Indian parliamentary delegation comes as the two countries are marking 2006 as 'India-China Friendship Year.'

"We also reached understanding on the functions and responsibilities of the Inter-country Parliamentary Friendship Groups in the respective countries," said Chatterjee,currently leading a high-level delegation from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to China.