State Councilor, State Council Yandong Liu of China

ensure public security for the Paralympics.

I hope the two countries can keep making efforts to further enhance their bilateral cooperation, Liu said during a meeting with Swiss President Pascal Couchepin.

Liu is leading a Communist Party of Chinas delegation to India and the Maldives.

Liu has served since 2003 as a Vice Chairwoman of the CPPCC national committee and a member of its Leading Party Members¡¯ Group.

As noted above, Liu is a Deputy Leader of the Party's Tibet Work Coordination Group tasked with "opposing the Dalai clique" and pursuing a Tibetan solution based on accelerated economic development.

Liu is the head of an organization that describes its purpose as preserving Tibetan culture, and that has registered with the United Nations (UN) as an independent NGO although it is supervised by senior Party and government officials.

Liu said funds for education should go up along with growth of fiscal revenues, efforts should be made in improving school buildings and bettering nutrition of students, more programs should be initiated for teachers' training in those areas, and vocational education should be developed towards a tuition-free system.

During her visit, Madame LIU was briefed about Europes fusion energy research programme, which is spearheaded by JET, the worlds most powerful fusion device.

International Conference on Education, organized by UNESCO.

Liu said the government has done a lot to protect and develop Tibetan culture, which conforms with the fundamental interests of all the ethnic groups in Tibet and the Chinese nation as a whole.

After presiding over the ceremonial display of one of Buddha's fingers, Liu said she was reaching out as a "friend" to all segments of Hong Kong.

Liu was set later to meet with various representatives of the Hong Kong community, which has been simmering with political anger since China's top legislative panel ruled out full democracy in the near term for Hong Kong.

Although Liu was making conciliatory gestures, such as a dinner planned for last night that was to include the head of Hong Kong's Roman Catholic Church as well as Muslim, Protestant and Buddhist leaders, critics cautioned it would take more to win the hearts of Hong Kong's people.

China and Russia are good neighborly countries with a long history of friendship between the two peoples, Liu said at the ceremony.

Liu said free compulsory education for urban students was an important policy to push forward the balanced development of compulsory education.

Bishop Lai told UCA News on Dec 20 that during the one-hour meeting, Liu was "sincere and frank" in sharing her views on matters such as Beijing-Vatican relations.

According to Bishop Lai, Liu said China is proceeding with efforts to establish ties with the Holy See, but issues concerning Taiwan and the appointment of bishops in China remain the two obstacles.