BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- China and Australia held the 11thdialogue on human rights here on Monday, which covered the issues of human rights protection and the rights of ethnic groups, women and children.

During the dialogue, the two sides also announced to continue their decade-long technical cooperation under the Australia-China Human Rights Technical Cooperation program since 1997, which aims at improving human rights in China at a practical level.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei, who co-chaired the dialogue with his Australian counterpart Peter Grey, said the dialogue was conducted in a "positive", "candid" and "constructive" manner which helps improve the further exchange and cooperation in the field.

The Chinese government highly values various rights that a Chinese citizen possesses and pays full respect to the universality of the concept of human rights, He told a press conference after the dialogue.

However, He said that the implementation of such a concept should closely suit the situations in different countries.

"Different countries have different human rights situations and it's understandable that they hold different views on human rights", He said.

The China-Australia human rights dialogue was initiated in 1997, aimed to enhance mutual trust and seek concrete ways of cooperation on relevant issues.

The dialogue this year has focused on the role of legal professionals in human rights. The Australian delegation also raised other ongoing human rights concerns and other individual cases of concern, according to a media release from the Australian delegation.

According to the release, the Australian delegation is expected to visit Wuhan, capital city of central China's Hubei Province, to examine the implementation of Chinese laws at the grass-root level.