China and Pakistan have for the first time signed a charter to step up bilateral defence cooperation to help maintain peace and stability in South Asia.

The agreement, as part of Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali's recent high profile visit to China, was signed in Beijing on Tuesday after senior officials from the two countries held in-depth talks on the security situation in South Asia, diplomatic sources said.

The Pakistani side of the talks was led by visiting Minister of State for Defence Production Habibullah Khan Waraich, while his Chinese counterpart was Zhang Wei Min.

Details of the Sino-Pakistani defence charter were not available and China's state-run media kept silent on the major bilateral agreement.

Interestingly, the agreement has been signed a day after Chinese Foreign Minister Liu Zhaoxing, during a telephone conversation with his British counterpart, Jack Straw, expressed China's concern about the 'no-contact, no-dialogue impasse' between India and Pakistan.

China maintains that its military cooperation with 'all weather' friend, Pakistan has enabled maintenance of peace and stability in South Asia and was 'normal' under state-to-state relationship.

Jamali, during his three-day official visit to Beijing recently, had met with the chairman of the Central Military Commission, Jiang Zemin, as well as the Chinese Defence Minister Genera Cao Gangchuan and had impressed upon them to have a closer Sino-Pakistani Defence cooperation.