China's Hu in Kenya on last leg of tour to boost ties

NAIROBI, Apr 27 (Reuters) Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Kenya today where he is expected to wrap up his world tour by signing an oil prospecting deal for China's state-controlled CNOOC.

The deal comes on the back of a 4 billion dollar agreement for oil drilling licences in Nigeria yesterday and would be the latest at the end of a Hu world tour in search of energy and resources to fuel China's booming economy and cement its growing economic and political influence.

Kenya said in October it planned to sign an agreement allowing CNOOC to prospect for oil and gas in six on- and offshore blocks in the north and south of the country.

Kenya's Acting Energy Minister Henry Obwocha told Reuters the deal would be signed tomorrow but refused to give out any more details on the value of the deal.

''We can't preempt it, the details will be released tomorrow,'' he said.

Hu's three-day trip to east Africa's biggest economy comes after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's visit to China last year to sign a raft of economic cooperation pacts including landing rights in several Chinese cities to national carrier Kenya Airways.

The talks with CNOOC are part of Kenya's strategy of looking to the Far East for investment and financial assistance. Like many African countries, it worries about conditions tied to aid from multilateral and Western donors.

During Hu's visit, Kenyan officials will face the delicate task of encouraging economic ties with a market of 1.3 billion potential consumers, and protecting its trading interests.

''We are...looking into the balance of trade between our two countries and to encourage more investment by Kenyans to their country and by Chinese to our country,'' government spokesman Alfred Mutua told a weekly news conference.

Bilateral trade amounted to 475 million dollar last year, according to Chinese officials. But the lion's share flowed East to pay for exports of everything from machinery and textiles to flip-flops and rice cookers.

China's exports to Kenya were worth 457 million dollar in 2005, a 31 per cent increase on the previous year, while imports of fruit, scrap copper, cotton, coffee and tea from Kenya rose 4 per cent to 17.6 million dollar.

The imbalance is killing livelihoods, many Kenyans say.

''You cannot go into any shop without finding a huge chunk of Chinese goods. The problem is it's killing our small and medium-sized enterprises,'' University of Nairobi lecturer and trade expert Jasper Okelo said.

''We're trying to work out a system where we're not just the consumers.'' Kenya is the final stop of a tour that has taken Hu to the United States, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Nigeria.

He is expected to view Kenya's Rift Valley on Saturday to highlight the east African country as a tourist destination for China's expanding middle class.

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