MOSCOW - China and Russia held a meeting on labor service cooperation here Tuesday, signaling the launch of the bilateral labor cooperation mechanism.

Chen Jian, visiting Chinese Vice-Minister of Commerce, and the Russian Federal Migration Service deputy chief Yegorova Yekaterina, exchanged views on promoting and regulating the labor cooperation between the two countries.

The two sides agreed on three principals for enhancing cooperation in this field -- to crackdown on illegal migrant workers, to educate migrant labors to comply with local laws, and to protect the labors' rights and interests.

As an important component of the Sino-Russian economic and business cooperation, the healthy development of the labor service cooperation would bring benefits to the two countries' economic ties, said Chen.

This was the two nations' first working-group meeting on labor cooperation since the signing of the China-Russia Short-term Labor Agreement in November 2000.

Chen stressed that China hopes the working group could help establish a pragmatic and efficient mechanism, which would play an active role in strengthening bilateral collaboration in labor services.