BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Top Chinese political advisor Jia Qinglin Friday called for actively promoting friendly religious exchanges with the outside world on an equal base but firmly stemming foreign infiltration in the name of religion.

    Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks when addressing a seminar on religious work for ministerial and provincial level officials.

    "The Party and the government have always attached great importance to religious work," said Jia, also member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau.

    The CPC Central Committee has made "a series of major decisions and arrangements as well as new achievements in religious work, while the country's religious sector has maintained a united and stable situation," he said.

    Jia, however, warned that officials should pay high attention to some new situations and developments in the country's religious field, along with the developments and changes in international and domestic situation, and deal with them in a proper way.

    He called for firmly implementing central decisions and arrangements, going all out to safeguard harmony and stability in the religious sector, and making maximal efforts to unite both religious and non-religious people and encourage them to devote themselves to the socialist cause with China's own characteristics.

    The workshop was organized jointly by the Organizational Department and the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, the State Administration of Religious Affairs, and the National School of Administration.