BRUSSELS -- European Council President Herman Van Rompuy is scheduled to visit China in May, a high-level official with the EU diplomatic corps said Thursday.

The European Union president will visit Beijing at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, said Ambassador Viorel Isticioaia-Budura, the European External Action Service's managing director for Asia.

The ambassador spoke during a meeting with a dozen European Parliament members focusing on relations with China.

Ambassador Song Zhe, head of the Chinese mission to the EU, also addressed the meeting.

It will be Van Rompuy's first official visit to China since he became president of the European Council in November 2009.

The increasingly broader and deepening cooperation between China and Europe is also expected to add more strategic importance to mutual ties as China is to implement its 12th five-year national plan while Europe is to ground its 2020 strategy.