It is the Chinese government's long-standing policy to encourage and support good governance, human rights and rule of law, but we have to respect African people's own choice for their way of development, he said in an open speech at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).

    Any country, no matter with any reason, should not impose a particular "value" or way of life on African countries, he added.

    "I am here to discuss with my Nigerian friends on how to promote Sino-Africa relations and how to strengthen bilateral ties between China and Nigeria," he said.

    "We will not impose our model of development on any of country in this continent, otherwise, we want to share our experience on opening-up and economic development with African brother nations, who may adopt its own suitable way of development," he said.

    On Sino-Africa economic cooperation, the senior Chinese diplomat rebuffed some "western countries' accusations that China is robbing natural resources" from this continent, saying that China's investment not only flows to natural resources sectors, but also to manufacturing, finance, human resources, infrastructure construction, healthcare and agriculture.

    He attributed some western countries' "over-reaction" to their "fear of the losing traditional monopoly" over Africa affairs.

    "The international community should make joint efforts to help African countries to go ahead. Any measures and actions, only if they benefit Africa, we will render our full support," he said.

    According to Liu, China's direct investment stood at about 11.1billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2007.

    Actions have been taken to implement the agreements reached between China and African countries since the 2006 summit in Beijing, especially projects to build schools, hospitals, agriculture cooperation, debt-cancellation and governmental development loans, which were illustrated in Chinese President Hu Jintao's guideline on Sino-Africa cooperation.

    On answering a Darfur question in the interactive section, Liu said the decades-old question was very complicated and talks among different groups are necessary to the process.

    China would work closely with the international community, African Union and major peace-keeping countries like Nigeria to encourage a quick solution to the problem, he said.