Following is the translation version of full text of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's speech delivered at the welcoming banquet hosted by Australian Prime Minister John Howard here on Monday:

China - On the Path of Peaceful Development for World Peace and Prosperity

Delivered by Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China At the Welcoming Banquet Hosted by Prime Minister John Winston Howard of the Commonwealth of Australia, April 3, 2006

The Honorable John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, The Honorable Kim Beazely, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,

It is a great pleasure for me to be with you today and to meet with all the Australian friends present. May I begin by expressing our heartfelt thanks to you, Prime Minister John Howard, for your gracious hospitality. I would also like to take this opportunity to send our best wishes to the Australian people.

I visited Australia in 1995, which left me a memorable impression. Coming back after 11 years, I have once again personally experienced the goodwill of the Australian people toward the Chinese people. In particular, I am deeply impressed by their growing interest in China. I think that people are paying greater attention to China because of the tremendous changes that are taking place in my country, made possible by the reform and opening-up program. Indeed, from 1978 to 2005, China's GDP increased by 11 times in dollar terms, from 215.3 billion US dollars to 2,225.7 billion dollars, or from 225 dollars to 1,707 dollars in per capita terms. Last year, China's foreign trade amounted to 1.42 trillion dollars. As of last February, China's foreign exchange reserves stood at 853.6 billion dollars.

As China grows stronger, people are asking: What future path ofdevelopment will China take? What responsibilities will China assume for the international community? Will China become a force for world peace and prosperity? I am glad to respond to these questions.

The path embarked upon by China is one of peaceful development. In essence, it means that China seeks to develop itself by working to sustain a peaceful international environment and promotes world peace through its own development. China mainly relies on its own strength, reform and innovation to achieve development. At the same time, it remains open to the outside world. China conducts exchanges and cooperation with other countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit in order to achieve win-win outcome and common development. China's development is peaceful, open and cooperative in nature.

To pursue the path of peaceful development is a natural choice for China.

First, this is determined by China's history and cultural traditions. The Chinese nation believes in harmony, peace and honoring commitment. "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." "Facilitate and not harm ... and provide and not compete." These Chinese mottoes tell a lot about the character of the Chinese nation, which is "embrace the world and promote morality and nationality."

Second, this is determined by China's need for development. Expediting economic and social development to build China into a modernized country is a historic mission undertaken by the Chinese people. To achieve this goal, we must have mutual confidence and live in harmony with other countries.

Third, this is dictated by the global trends. The pursuit of peace, development and cooperation is the shared aspiration of all peoples. As a member of the international community, China needs to achieve its own development goals. At the same time, it also needs to keep pace with the global trend, and shoulder, together with other countries, international responsibilities for maintaining peace.

In short, the path of peaceful development taken by China is by no means an expediency. Rather, it is a fundamental choice and solemn commitment made by the Chinese government and people.

Mr. Prime Minister, you have said that China's development is good to both China and the world. This shows your understanding of and support for China's path of peaceful development. Anyone without bias can easily see that while working to develop itself, China is, through its own acts, playing a responsible role in the world, as shown in the following ten aspects:

-- China endeavors to develop social productive force and improve the material and cultural life of its people and remains committed to promoting human progress. China has succeeded in feeding its 1.3 billion people, lifted over 200 million people out of poverty, and basically extended nine-year compulsory education nationwide. The Chinese government provides assistance to more than 60 million people with disabilities and offers equal development opportunities to all ethnic groups. China now enjoys social stability, and the Chinese people are pursuing prosperity in peace. A developing and stable China in itself is the biggest contribution to world peace and prosperity.

-- Drawing upon its practices and experiences, China has embarked on a road of scientific development. We take energy conservation and environmental protection as basic state policies, and we are striving to build a resource conservation and environment friendly society to ensure China's coordinated and sustained social and economic development. China's development does not pose a threat to the world.

-- China pursues an independent foreign policy of peace and takes position on issues based on their respective merits. In international affairs, China works to promote peace and development through cooperation and strictly observes the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and commonly recognized norms governing international relations. We do not define our relations with other countries on the basis of ideology, and we do not enter into alliance with any other country. China seeks to live in friendship with all other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

-- China strives to safeguard global peace, and is actively involved in preserving and building the international system. China is a member of over 100 inter-governmental organizations and is a party to nearly 300 international treaties. China works for the establishment of a fair and equitable new international order, promotes democracy in international relations and upholds the diversity of civilizations.

-- China continues to foster good-neighborliness and partnership with countries adjacent to itself and will always be a good neighbor and good partner of them. China advanced bilateral and regional cooperation for common prosperity through APEC, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China-ASEAN cooperation and the Greater Mekong Sub-regional Cooperation Program. We stand for openness in regional cooperation and closer relations with other countries and international organizations.

-- China supports peaceful settlement of disputes and plays a constructive role in addressing hot-spot issues. On major international issues such as the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, the Iranian nuclear issue and the Middle East, China has worked on the parties concerned to seek peace through negotiations. China also takes an active part in international cooperation in addressing non-traditional security issues, including major natural disasters. Last year, we carried out a major international rescue and relief operation, the largest of its kind in China's history, to assist countries struck by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

-- China takes an active part in counter-terrorism and cooperation in non-proliferation and strives to maintain global security and strategic stability. China opposes terrorism and has played a constructive role in international anti-terrorism cooperation. China is a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and supports the implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. China has set up a comprehensive legal regime governing export control to prevent proliferation and is stepping up its law-enforcement efforts toward this end.

-- China honors its WTO accession commitments and is actively involved in building an equitable and free international trading regime. After joining the WTO, China has taken steps to open its domestic market and its average tariff has dropped to 9.9%. China has pledged to open 100 sectors or sub-sectors out of a total of 160 in service trade defined by the WTO. Major intellectual property rights (IPR) laws in China have been amended to make them compatible with relevant WTO agreements. In addition, the threshold for meting out criminal punishment for IPR violation has been lowered to strengthen law enforcement for IPR protection.

-- China strives to realize the UN Millennium Development Goals and provides sincere and selfless assistance to other developing countries. Up to now, China has undertaken over 2,000 aid projects for more than 110 countries and regional organizations and canceled or reduced a total of over 20 billion Chinese yuan of debt contracted by 44 underdevelopment countries. In addition, China will provide 10 billion dollars in concessional loans and preferential export buyer's credit to underdevelopment countries in the next three years to help them strengthen infrastructure development.

-- China pursues a military strategy defensive in nature and works to promote international disarmament and arms control. China has reduced its military forces by more than 1.7 million over the past two decades and more. The share of China's military spending in its GDP and government budget is fairly low by international standard. The modest increase in China's military expenditure is mainly for improving the welfare of its servicemen, strengthening its defense capabilities and achieving national reunification. Thus, it will not pose a threat to anyone. China's defense policy is transparent.

China sincerely hopes to make greater contribution to world peace and development. But to do so, China needs, first and foremost, to step up its development. Development, and only development, can enable China to resolve its problems and assume greater responsibility in the world. Despite all it has achieved, China remains a developing country faced with a huge task of development. A big population, low productivity and unbalanced regional development: these are the basic features of China's national conditions.

China still ranks behind the 100th place in terms of per capita GDP, and 23.65 million of its rural population still live in poverty. China needs to provide jobs for close to 24 million people every year, 60 million people with disabilities need care and assistance, and over 100 million surplus rural labor force need to be transferred to other sectors. China still has a long way to go before it achieves modernization. This calls for the unremitting efforts of several, a dozen or even several dozens of generations.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends,

Peace and development are the common pursuit of mankind, and the building of a harmonious world is the shared desire of all peoples. To achieve amity among people, harmony between man and nature and peaceful coexistence of countries requires the common effort of the international community. Former Australian Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies said that we need "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." We are prepared to continue to work with the international community and Australia to build a harmonious world of enduring peace and prosperity.

Australia is endowed with rich resources and has a developed economy and advanced technologies, whereas China has a large population, a huge market and tremendous potential for development. Our economies are highly complementary. China is now the largest source country of overseas students to Australia and the number of Chinese tourists to Australia is growing faster than any other country. Cultural links and people-to-people exchanges between our two countries will become even closer with the inauguration of the second Confucius Academy in Australia and the success of the series of activities entitled "Experience the Chinese Culture in Australia." There are no fundamental differences standing in the way of China-Australia relations. Rather, we enjoy extensive converging interests. A long-term and stable relationship and cooperation between China and Australia serve the fundamental interests of both countries and peoples. The Chinese side views its relationship with Australia from a strategic perspective and wishes to become a good friend and good partner of Australia.

Prime Minister John Howard and I have had fruitful discussions today and we have reached broad agreement on developing China-Australia relationship of all-round cooperation for mutual benefit and win-win outcome in the 21st century. We both agreed to strengthen bilateral political exchanges and strategic dialogue to enhance mutual trust. We are committed to expanding cooperation in trade, investment, energy and resources and other fields and accelerating the China-Australia FTA negotiations for mutual benefit and common progress. We will promote cultural, educational and tourism exchanges to enhance understanding and friendship between our peoples. And we will work together to promote sound and orderly development of regional cooperation in the interest of prosperity and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

I am firm in the belief that, with the concerted efforts of both countries, China-Australia relations of all-round cooperation will yield rich fruits!

Now I wish to propose a toast, to the health of Prime Minister John Howard.