JUBA, Sudan - China will help south Sudan train officials and invest in construction of its infrastructure.

Li Zhiguo, China's consul-general in Juba, said China's relationship with south Sudan, which will declare independence on July 9, is a "comprehensive and cooperative" one.

Oil-producing south Sudan voted overwhelmingly in a referendum earlier this year to secede from the north after nearly half a century of intermittent civil wars that ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005.