BEIJING - Nearly 1,000 Chinese and Japanese people planted commemorative trees in Beijing on Saturday morning to mark the 40th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic ties.

Zhao Shucong, chief of the State Forestry Administration, said in his address that China and Japan have attached great importance to cooperating over ecological construction, which is a key sector of bilateral friendly relations.

The planting of the trees is based on a fund initiated by the Japanese government for the two countries' civilian exchanges in forestation. China and Japan also set up a civilian committee to guide non-governmental forestation cooperation between the two countries in 1999.

The Chinese and Japanese governments have set 2012 as "the year of civilian friendly exchanges" with this year serving as a major anniversary for bilateral relationship.

Former Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan and Japanese ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa attended the tree planting.