KABUL - Afghan companies attending the Shanghai World Expo are looking forward to inking trade agreements with their Chinese counterparts, an official said Tuesday.

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"We hope to ink several agreements for trade promotion with Chinese and other countries' companies during the Expo," Ahmad Zekeria Tokhi, Manager for Foreign Trade Mission of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI), told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

He said that the Chinese people like Afghan handicrafts and dry fruits and he hoped that agreements for the export of the above items would be signed there during the World Expo, which is slated on May 1.

An independent body supporting the business community in the war-ravaged Afghanistan, ACCI is satisfied with the free plot given to Afghanistan at the Expo.

"We are very thankful to China for allocating 324 square meters space free of charge to Afghanistan and I am satisfied with the place that accommodates our products in the exhibition," Tokhi, who inspected the exhibition place last September, told Xinhua.

"I hope that several agreements for trade and economic cooperation to be inked during the Expo with companies from China and other nations," said the official.

In the six-month long World Expo, nine Afghan firms will put on display their products with objective to attract business partners.

Afghanistan has nine booths there in the Expo and signing trade agreements would eventually lead to the strengthening relations between Afghanistan and China in other fields, said Tokhi.

The main items put on display at the exhibition in Afghan booths, according to Tokhi, include carpet, marble, handicrafts and dry fruits.

Syed Masoud, marketing officer for the Export Promotion Bureau of Afghanistan, in talks with Xinhua thanked China for allocating plot free of charge and hoped the opportunity would avail to enhance trade cooperation with the host country and other nations.

Trade volume between the war-torn Afghanistan and China has been on constant rise over the past eight years.

Afghanistan had exported goods worth more than 6 million U.S. dollars over the past one year to China and is hopeful to increase the volume in the coming years, the official said.