MOSCOW, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday commended the rapid development of the Russia-China trade over recent years while calling for efforts to restructure Russia's exports to China.

"The growth rate of the Russia-China trade has far exceeded theaverage growth rate of Russia's overall foreign trade over recent years. Russia ranks among the Top Ten trade partners of China in astable manner, " Putin said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua prior to his visit to China.

The trade volume between the two countries hit 29.1 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 37 percent on a year-on-year basis.

Putin said bilateral investment is also registering stable development. About 557 projects financed by China are being carried out in Russia.

While expressing satisfaction over the momentum of growth in bilateral trade, Putin called attention to existing problems.

A leading problem, according to the president, is irraitonalityof the structure of Russia-China trade, particularly the structureof Russia's exports to China, which has failed to reflect the two countries' development potential. He highlighted the fact that Russian machinery exports to China dropped by nearly a half last year.

"We believe more concerted efforts should be made to promote Russia's export of machinery to markets in China, particularly products of Russia with an absolutely competitive edge," Putin said.

Energy cooperation between Russia and China is progressing favorably with a promising future, Putin said.

He said the two countries are discussing the possibility of building an oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to China, as a branch of the planned oil pipeline that runs from eastern Siberia to Russia's Pacific coast.

"Russia's oil exports to China are increasing steadily," Putin said, adding that "If the proposed oil pipeline is completed, oil supplies to China will be significantly increased."

"Cooperation in the field of natural gas is also of bright prospects," said Putin.

The president said that cooperation is underway in accordance with the strategic cooperative agreements reached between Russia'sgas giant Gazprom and its Chinese counterpart.

A smooth headway has been also recorded in bilateral cooperation in the field of electricity, the president noted.

Putin said that apart from exporting electricity to China, Russia is to attract investments from China for the construction of large-scale power generating plants that will be able to provide electricity for markets including China.