South Korea and China are likely to adopt an appendix to an envisioned joint communique to highlight cooperation in various fields when their leaders hold a summit later this week, sources said Tuesday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to make a two-day visit to Seoul on Thursday to meet South Korean President Park Geun-hye in a bid to discuss bilateral relations and North Korea's nuclear program.

The two countries have been discussing adopting an appendix to flesh out their strategic cooperative partnership, according to the sources.

When they held a summit in Beijing in June 2013, an appendix to a joint communique laid out an array of specific commitments to pursuing all-around cooperation in various areas, including investment, trade and consular affairs.

A new appendix may include how to strengthen existing strategic dialogues and promote economic exchanges, along with new projects to rev up people-to-people exchanges in nonpolitical and economic areas, sources added.

Last year, the two countries agreed to establish a dialogue channel between South Korea's presidential national security chief and China's state councilor in charge of foreign affairs.

On economic areas, the two leaders are likely to focus on progress made in their free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations. At last year's summit, Seoul and Beijing agreed to step up efforts to expand bilateral trade volume to US$300 billion by 2015.

The two countries are also expected to sign a deal on consular affairs at the summit, and cooperation at nongovernmental levels such as academic and youth exchanges is likely to be included in the appendix, they added. (Yonhap)