President Hu Jintao exchanged congratulatory messages with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak on the occasion of Friday's New Year celebration.

In the message, Hu said China and South Korea are good neighbors and their relations have made much headway in recent years.

The two countries have maintained frequent high-level exchanges, strengthened their political mutual trust, conducted increasingly close communication and cooperation in various fields and carried out effective coordination and cooperation on international and regional issues, Hu said.

"During my visit to your country in 2008, we decided to take the Shanghai Expo and Yeosu Expo as an opportunity to set 2010 and2012 as Visit China Year and Visit Korea Year respectively," said Hu.

China is willing to cooperate with the South Korean side to make the Visit China Year a happy, colorful and special event, to enhance mutual understanding and friendship between the Chinese and South Korean peoples, he added.

Lee said in his message that China-South Korean ties have been developing rapidly since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1992. Currently the relationship has been upgraded to a "strategic cooperative partnership".

The two sides should continue to enrich the content of their relations, and expand cooperation on regional and international affairs, he said.

South Korea thinks the success of the Shanghai Expo in 2010 will lead to the success of South Korea's Yeosu Expo in 2012, thus it will give full support to the Chinese side in its preparation, Lee said.

He also hopes the two expos will encourage the two countries to expand cultural exchanges and practical cooperation in the future.