BEIJING - President Xi Jinping has extended condolences to South Korea, Iran and Italy over the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak on behalf of the Chinese government and people.

Xi conveyed these sincere sympathies to the government and people of the three countries in his messages respectively to his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani and Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella.

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In the message to Moon Jae-in, President Xi said the Chinese side stands ready to join hands with the South Korean side to win the fight against the epidemic at an early date

In the message to Moon, Xi said China will continue to provide assistance within its capacity to support South Korea's fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.

He said the Chinese side stands ready to join hands with the South Korean side to win the fight against the epidemic at an early date, so as to protect the life and health of the people of the two countries and the wider world.

In the message to Rouhani, Xi said China will continue to provide as much assistance as it can for Iran in the latter's fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.    

He said China stands ready to step up cooperation with Iran to contain the novel coronavirus epidemic.

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In the message to Mattarella, Xi said that at this difficult time, China is willing to cooperate with Italy and offer assistance, and that the Chinese government and its people firmly support Italy's fight against the outbreak.

Xi also has extended condolences to the European Union over the outbreak to express the sincere sympathies to the EU and the people of its members.

Xi extended condolences in messages to the European Council President Charles Michel and the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday.