Speaking to mediapersons after the talks between the two leaders, Yeltsin's deputy chief of staff Sergei Prikhodka said, Yeltsin and Shu didn't discuss such crucial international issues like the situation in Kosovo and the India's nuclear tests.

Instead, sticking to matters closer home, the two leaders discussed strategic partnership between Russia and China on the threshold of 21st century and trade and economic cooperation, he said.

Zhu presented to Yeltsin a picture of Chinese President Jiang Zemin, taken last November during the first informal ``no-necktie'' summit between the two presidents at the Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital.

Yeltsin praised Jiang's role in ``strengthening all-round cooperation'' and friendship between the two countries. ``He fulfils all ouragreements,'' Yeltsin said.

The Russian president promised to pay a visit to Beijing later this year, for his seventh summit with Jiang. After talks with Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Zhu signed eleven agreements on trade, energy and military cooperation.

Political observers say, the talks between Zhu and his Russian counterpart were aimed at reestablishing closer trade and economic relations, which have been on the downswing in recent years.

The annual trade turnover between the two countries fell to $5.5 billion in 1998, from $6 billion in 1997 and $7 billion in 1996. The two countries have set a target of $20 billion worth of trade turnover by 2000.

Noted defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said the ``growing convergence of basic interests'' of Russia, China and India was pushing these countries towards a ``triangular alliance'' whether they liked it or not.

``Maybe one day, relentless Western pressure, will force these countries to sign a formal alliance,'' he said, referring to theeconomic sanctions imposed by the US on India, Russia and China.

The Russia-China talks in Moscow have been overshadowed by the recent sanctions imposed by the Clinton administration on ten Russian institutes and companies for their alleged cooperation in Iran's nuclear development programme. On Wednesday, America slapped a ban on the sale of a communication satellite to Beijing. ``They will be counter-productive,'' Primakov said of the sanctions.