Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said here Thursday that his country pays great attention to relations with China.

During his meeting with visiting senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Zhang Gaoli, Kenny, also leader of the ruling Fine Gael party, said he looks forward to visiting China "at a time of mutual convenience" and "as soon as possible," adding that his visit will aim at further deepening the friendly cooperation between the two countries.

For his part, Zhang, who is leading a CPC delegation for a visit to the island country, spoke highly of Chinese-Irish relations, saying that both sides enjoyed long-term and stronger ties since the two countries established diplomatic relations over 30 years ago.

He said China was ready to maintain high-level exchanges and enhance political mutual trust with Ireland.

On expanding economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, Zhang, who is a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Tianjin Municipal Committee, said both sides should give full play to the complementary advantages of each other to explore and develop new cooperation fields.

He added the two sides should strengthen communication and coordination on major international and regional issues and jointly safeguard world peace, stability and development.

The CPC is willing to increase exchanges and cooperation with the ruling Fine Gael party to forge ahead bilateral ties, said Zhang.

Ireland is the first leg of Zhang's ongoing four-nation tour which will also take him to Oman, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.