There are over 8,000 African students learning Chinese and the number is on the increase, said Zhou Ji, China's education minister here at Sunday's Sino-African Education Minister Forum.

Nearly 120 schools in 16 African countries had opened Chinese courses by July 1, 2005, said Zhou, and to meet the increasing need of African students, China has sent nearly 200 teachers to Africa.

In Sudan alone, Chinese learners have amounted to 450, and many have come to China to learn on Chinese government scholarships, according to Peter Nyot Kok, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Sudan.

China has also assisted African countries such as Cameroon, Egypt, Mauritius in building linguistic laboratories for Chinese language learning and provided Chinese books as well.

China has established a Confucius Institute in the Nairobi University of Kenya and opened a Chinese Language and Culture Center in the Stellenbosch University in South Africa to further promote Chinese language and culture.

Sunday's forum, with the participation of education ministers from 17 African countries, is a follow-up action of the Sino-African Cooperation Forum and a new attempt of multilateral cooperation in education.

The forum centers on the theme of "strategy for educational development in China and African countries and international exchange and cooperation".