BEIJING, Aug 30 (AFP) - China said it wanted to make a "concerted effort" to improve relations with Australia through trade and economic cooperation after Chinese Premier Li Peng met with Australian Deputy Premier Tim Fischer here Friday.

"China and Australia should respect each other and seek common ground," Li Peng was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency after the meeting with Fischer, who is also trade minister.

Li said bilateral trade volume had grown annually and was expected to reach five billion dollars this year, the official news agency reported.

Fischer said his visit was meant to exchange views on issues such as trade and economic cooperation as Australia placed "great importance to relations with China," Xinhua said.

He said Australia's new government hoped the two countries would increase cooperation in investment, financial services and tourism.

On Thursday Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Wu Yi said there was no possibility of China lowering its import tariffs on Australian wool, despite growing pressure from Canberra.

Wu told Fischer that it would be "definitely impossible" to lower the wool tariff, which officially stands at 15 percent,although at present it is collected at a temporary rate of between five and seven percent.

She also made it clear that quota controls on wool would remain in force.

China is the biggest buyer of Australian wool, with annual imports topping 100,000 tonnes, but Canberra has been fighting for years to get the quotas scrapped and tariffs reduced.

So far, Beijing has resisted for fears that a huge influx of wool would hurt domestic producers in the west of the country.

China imported 57,000 tonnes of wool in the first half of 1996, "way above the level of last year," Wu said, adding that Beijing was keen to increase cooperation in wool processing using Australian technology.

Wool has been a major focus of Fischer's week-long visit to China, which began Wednesday in Shanghai and is aimed at boosting economic and trade cooperation.

According to Chinese statistics, Sino-Australian trade stood at 4.21 billion dollars last year, while volume in the first half of 1996 grew 33.8 percent from the same 1995 period to 2.46 billion dollars.

In a separate meeting later Thursday, Vice Premier Zhu Rongji told Fischer that Australia and China still had great potential for economic and technological cooperation that had not been exploited.

Sino-Australian ties have been strained of late over the issue of Taiwan, the strengthening of Canberra's military ties with Washington and a planned visit to Australia by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.