ULAN BATOR, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia needs to better protect its little forest, and it wants to learn how to do so from Russia, the country's parliament's press office said Friday.

Byambasuren Enkh-Amgalan, a Mongolian parliament member and deputy head of the Mongolia-Russia group made the remarks while meeting with a visiting Russian delegation led by Sergey Lugovskoy, speaker of the Legislative Duma of Khabarovsk Krai (province).

"Mongolia has low forestry resources. So we are willing to learn from Khabarovsk Krai's experience in protecting forestry resources, and closely cooperate in this area," he said.

Mongolia's total land area is 1,564,116 square km, 7.7 percent of which is covered by forests, according to the country's Environment and Tourism Ministry.

During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on expanding overall relations between Mongolia and Russia, particularly cooperation between Ulan Bator city and Khabarovsk Krai, the parliament said in a statement.

Enkh-Amgalan stressed that Mongolia and Russia should implement certain measures, including promoting public-private partnerships between the two countries and creating more opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises to advertise and sell their goods.

Also, he invited Khabarovsk Krai businessmen and companies from the fields of meat and meat products, leather, wool and cashmere, fish products, wooden materials and oil to participate in the Mongolia-Russia Cooperation Forum in Ulan Bator in September.

Lugovskoy, for his part, said the Russian government attaches great importance to boosting its relations with Mongolia across the board.

Lugovskoy said it was important that ties expand in trade, culture and youth exchanges, adding that Russia is ready to work closely with Mongolia to bolster relations.