A contest among university students in China to find the best singers of songs in Portuguese drew entrants from seven parts of the country, including Macao, Beijing and the province of Sichuan, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese government-run news agency says the competition, the ninth of its kind, was held at Beijing Foreign Studies University last Saturday.

The report quotes the head of the department of Portuguese at the university, Zhang Fangfang, as saying the contest is meant to enhance understanding of the cultures of Portuguese-speaking parts of the world.

Ms Zhang said videos of the singing performances would be relayed abroad to show lusophones the passion of the youth of China for their cultures, and the progress made in the teaching of the Portuguese language in China.

The performances are a notable outcome of cultural exchanges, Xinhua quotes an Angolan diplomat in Beijing as saying.