China and Iran will maintain high-level exchanges, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told visiting Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi during a meeting in Beijing on Thursday.

"The Sino-Iran relationship has witnessed rapid development, as the two countries' leaders have had frequent exchanges, and cooperation in trade and energy has widened and deepened," the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Wen as saying.

Beijing and Teheran will accordingly enhance mutual understanding, promote bilateral pragmatic cooperation and coordinate closely in international affairs, Wen reportedly told Rahimi.

China will also continue to play a constructive role in seeking a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear issue, Wen maintained. RELATEDPutin: Iran sanctions an unneeded scareUS bill: Congress may sanction Iran'Israel may attack Iran after December'

According to the report, Rahimi said that developing the bilateral relationship with China was an expression of the will of both the Islamic republic leadership and people.

Ahead of a meeting of world powers with Iranian representatives in Geneva on October 1, a Chinese official spoke out late September against imposing sanctions on Iran if it refuses to cooperate.

"At present, it is not conducive to diplomatic efforts," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said, noting a joint statement at the UN that China signed emphasizing "the resolution of the issue through dialogue and negotiation and getting the Iranian nuclear issue back to the track of dialogue."

On Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was in China, criticized talk of sanctions against Iran, undermining US efforts to present a united front against Teheran's nuclear program at a crucial moment.

"If we speak about some kind of sanctions now, before we take concrete steps, we will fail to create favorable conditions for negotiations," Putin said. "That is why we consider such talk premature."