The construction of the Russia-China oil pipeline will be finished by the end of this year, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Sunday.

The project is part of the East Siberia - Pacific oil pipeline, which was launched into operation in December 2009 and is designed to pump up to 1.6 million barrels (220,000 tons) of crude per day from Siberia to Russia's Far East and then on to China and the Asia-Pacific region.

Yang said the Chinese section of the oil pipeline, which would stretch from the settlement of Skovorodino in the Amur Region in the Russian Far East, would become fully operational in 2011.

The Chinese top diplomat praised bilateral cooperation in the energy sphere, saying Russia and China had already signed a series of agreements on oil, natural gas and electricity supplies, and also accumulated extensive experience of cooperation in the sphere of civilian nuclear power engineering.

Yang also said that relations with Russia were a priority of China's foreign policy, adding that Moscow and Beijing held similar positions on many international and regional issues and had vast potential for the development of their interaction.

BEIJING, March 7 (RIA Novosti)