Beijing (People's Daily Online) -- The energy cooperation between China and Iran is unrelated to the Iran nuclear issue, China's Foreign Ministry said.

Some U.S. officials recently said that one of the main purposes of U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's visits to Beijing is to persuade China to reduce crude imports from Iran.

At a daily press briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin was asked to make a comment on this.

"China is a major developing country, and it has reasonable demand for energy," said Liu. "We have repeatedly stated that China, like many other countries, has normal, open and transparent energy cooperation with Iran, and it is unrelated to the Iran nuclear issue."