BEIJING (AFX) - China's Ministry of Commerce will hold talks with Russia's Ministry of Light Industry to study the feasibility of using Russian quotas to export Chinese textile products in 2006, the China Business News reported, citing an unnamed source with Russia's Bureau of Light Industry.

The source said China is always short of textile export quotas, while Russia always has a quota surplus, therefore the two countries intend to work out an efficient way of cooperating on the problem.

It quoted Liu Xin, representative for the State of Ivanovo - Russia's textile production base - as saying that the Chinese and Russian governments are working to build a cooperation platform for textile companies in the two countries.

Liu said the local government of Ivanovo expressed a strong desire to cooperate on textiles with the eastern Chinese provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu and talks between the provincial governments are ongoing.

China reached agreements with the EU and the US on textile export quotas earlier this year following a series of trade rows.

But China's textile exports are still facing a tough business environment, said the newspaper, adding that cooperation with Russia may ease the difficult situation.

Officials at the Ministry of Commerce were not immediately available for comment.

Cao Xinyu, vice chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles, said last month that China's textile exports are likely to rise 15 pct year-on-year to between 105 bln and 110 bln yuan this year.

China's textile exports have surged this year with the end of a global quota system.

Forextv.com