BEIJING - A senior Chinese official said Thursday that countries are in urgent need of strengthening international cooperation while boosting their respective capacities in addressing the growing network security challenges.

Wang Chen, chief of the Information Office of China's State Council, made the remarks while addressing the fourth UK-China Internet Roundtable meeting.

"Like other countries, China also faces a grave and growing network security situation," he said, noting that China has become one of the world's primary victims of hacking.

"China is opposed to all forms of network hacking, network war and cyberspace arms race," he said.

As China and other developing countries face an expanding and graver number of network security challenges than developed countries do, developed countries should make use of their visible advantage in network technology and security support capacity and provide help to developing countries, Wang said.

Wang said the international exchanges and cooperation over the Internet should respect the principles of full equality, as well as mutual respect and benefit, and should refrain from using "network freedom" to seek "network hegemony," adding that China would like to play an active role in this process.

The two-day meeting, which gathered over 100 representatives from governmental departments, renowned Internet enterprises and research institutes of China and UK, concludes on Friday.

Later Thursday, Liu Yunshan, head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), met in Beijing with Minister of UK Culture, Media and Sports Ed Vaizey, who is here to attend the roundtable conference.

During the meeting with Liu, Vaizey hailed China's Internet achievements. He said Britain pays close attention to the development of China's Internet community and is willing to enhance bilateral cooperation on Internet-related issues.

China will continue its efforts to create a healthy, harmonious and colorful cultural environment for the Internet and promote the safe and orderly transmission of information, Liu said.