BEIJING, November 2 (RIA Novosti, Alexei Yefimov) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov called Wednesday for diversifying Russian-Chinese trade.

"Russia and China need to diversify the structure of bilateral trade," Zhukov said at a meeting with Chinese entrepreneurs.

Zhukov said that despite a considerable growth in trade turnover, Russian exports to China were represented mainly by raw materials, including timber, metals, ores, fertilizers and cellulose, which all together accounted for some 90% of Russian exports this year.

"To further increase the volume of our economic-trade ties, we need to develop such forms of cooperation as production cooperation, mutual investment [and] joint mastering of advanced technologies," the deputy prime minister said.

Zhukov's Chinese counterpart Wu Yi said trade turnover so far this year had almost reached $21 billion - the figure for all of 2004.