BEIJING - China is willing to strengthen the cooperation with the European Union (EU) in various areas such as the biodiversity protection, said a Chinese official Friday.

Zhu Hong, a senior official of China's Ministry of Commerce, made the remarks at a seminar on the biological diversity protection held here Friday.

"China is among the countries with the richest biodiversity, but is also one of the countries facing grave situation of declining biodiversity," Zhu said.

Over the past five year, a cooperation project, the EU-China Biodiversity Programme (ECBP), has yielded a fruitful result, Vice Environmental Protection Minister Li Ganjie said at the seminar.

For example, the ECBP had helped many local governments in China to include the biodiversity protection in their local economic and social development plans for the next five years, Li said.

It also helped local governments to establish legal and policy system related to biodiversity conservation.

Started from 2005, the ECBP is the EU's largest overseas biodiversity conservation programme.

It was initiated jointly by the EU, the United Nations Development Programme, China's Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Commerce.

In addition to promoting the biodiversity protection policies, the programme also made efforts in promoting the awareness of biodiversity among the public.

Friday's seminar was also one of the activities to observe this year's International Biodiversity Day, which falls on May 22.