Cerar told Slovenian reporters that Li had expressed "great interest" in cooperation with Slovenia in business and other areas.

He also said the Chinese PM was well informed of last-month's visit of a strong business and political delegation led by Chinese Deputy PM Wang Yang to Slovenia.

In this context, Cerar underlined the importance of port operator Luka Koper as a link to Central Europe. He said the Chinese were interested in "many things in Slovenia", including construction of railways.

This project should be started as soon as possible to connect Luka Koper to Central Europe, the Slovenian PM stressed.

Concrete projects are to be discussed at a business forum later today, running on the sidelines of the 16+1 summit.

"I think the meeting with (the Chinese PM) was very concrete on the political...level. Now it is up to business executives to look for contacts at the forum," he said.

Cerar also announced that the government would step up efforts to attract foreign investors, from Asia as well as Europe and other parts of the world. "Slovenia must start building, must open up to speed up growth of employment and achieve its goals."

Regarding warnings from Brussels that all deals with China must be compliant with EU rules, Cerar said that the EU must not be a community which obstructs foreign investments but that foreign investors must also obey rules put in place.

Touching on the meeting with his Serbian counterpart, Cerar said the pair had agreed that the relations between Slovenia and Serbia were very good in all areas and that business cooperation could be enhanced.

He invited Vučić for a visit to Slovenia at the beginning of next year to discuss this.

"I am happy to see Serbia so very proactive and progressive in its economic and general development and showing that new energy can stimulate bold development, because this also opens many opportunities for our companies and investors in Serbia," Cerar said.

He reiterated that Slovenia supports Serbia's efforts to join the EU. "There are certain obstacles on this path and Slovenia is one of the players which wants to help remove these obstacles, especially at the EU level," the PM stated, adding that Serbia must in turn meet all the conditions for membership.

Cerar and Vučić agreed that good relations with Russia, especially in business, were in the best interest of both Serbia and Europe. But Cerar warned that no country, especially an EU member, must ignore the fact that Russia is currently violating international rules and principles.

According to Cerar, Vučić expressed disappointment that the project of building the South Stream pipeline, which was to cross Slovenia as well as Serbia, has been scrapped.

Cerar is scheduled to attend the 16+1 summit this afternoon in what will be the third meeting of the group of Central and East Europe countries plus China. The first was held two years ago in Warsaw and the second last year in Bucharest.