BEIJING (Reuter) - Chinese President Jiang Zemin met his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin Thursday in a glittering ceremony that pledged a strategic partnership but shied away from a new alliance between the former communist rivals.

``I view the Sino-Russian partnership...as a model for relations between two countries,'' Yeltsin told an audience of about 100 Chinese dignitaries after signing a keynote joint communique and 13 cooperation agreements.

Yeltsin, who faces a strong communist challenge to his re-election in June, used the second day of his three-day official visit to Beijing and Shanghai to groom his image back home by strengthening ties with Russia's biggest neighbor.

``I can't name a single question on which we would have different opinions,'' Yeltsin told Jiang at a meeting in Beijing's cavernous, Stalinist-style Great Hall of the People.

Underlining the new apogee in relations between Russia and China, the two governments signed an agreement to establish a telephone hotline similar to the one that links Moscow with the capitals of the United States, Germany and France.

The leaders of the two states, who battled for ideological supremacy in the communist world for two decades in the 1960s and 1970s and whose soldiers fought in border clashes in 1968, said they were now building stable and lasting relations.

``We want relations between Russia and China to mature so that they can withstand any twists and turns,'' Yeltsin said.

Jiang echoed Yeltsin's optimism. ``Sino-Russian friendly relations have entered into a new age,'' he told reporters.

The visit not only boosted diplomatic and trade ties but won timely backing from Jiang for Yeltsin's opposition to NATO's plans to expand eastwards toward Russian borders.

``As far as NATO expansion is concerned, chairman Jiang Zemin resolutely joined Russia's view that NATO's expansion toward its borders is impermissible,'' Yeltsin told reporters.

The Russian and Chinese presidents, both feeling international pressure to solve their territorial disputes peacefully, told the West to mind its own business.

In their communique, they said China viewed Yeltsin's military campaign in rebel Chechnya as Russia's internal affair. Russia made a similar commitment on Taiwan and Tibet.

``We are together in our commitment to cooperate in creating a new world order free from claims for monopoly in international affairs,'' Yeltsin told reporters in a clear reference to the West.

But both leaders shied away from a new alliance in confrontation with the West.

``We both agreed to develop cooperation between our two countries on the basis of five principles of peaceful co-existance,'' Jiang said, using China's codeword for a non-aligned stance.

Diplomats said their glowing mutual admiration would not herald a new Sino-Russian axis because the two harboured deep mutual suspicions after a quarter-century freeze in ties that ended only in the mid-1980s.

While praising relations with China, Yeltsin did not miss the opportunity to take a dig at his communist rivals, telling his elite communist audience that a communist victory in the June 16 elections could be a tragedy for Russia.

``If they win, civil war would start in Russia,'' Yeltsin said to the group, who listened in frozen silence. ``This would be an end to reforms, this cannot be allowed.''

Yeltsin further sought to boost his image, saying he had won from Jiang a pledge to throw China's weight behind a call for a nuclear test ban treaty.

``We agreed here that China will join a decision at the eight party summit on nuclear safety in Moscow to hold talks and reach an agreement on a complete end to nuclear tests this year,'' he said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang was more cautious, saying further discussion was needed.