Chinese premier meets African Union chief

BRAZZAVILLE, June 19 (Reuters) Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met African Union chairman and Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso today during a seven-nation tour of a continent whose oil and minerals are increasingly fuelling Chinese growth.

Wen arrived in the Republic of Congo's capital Brazzaville and immediately went into meetings with Sassou, who holds the rotating African Union chair for one year.

Wen's delegation was expected to sign agreements covering economic and health affairs.

Wen has already visited Egypt and Ghana on his whistlestop tour of Africa. Beijing has in recent years been offering aid and loans for development projects in return for access to oil, minerals and other resources for its fast-growing economy.

Some Western critics and rights groups say China obtains African resources with little regard for the environment or the human rights records of leaders it deals with.

Wen told reporters in Cairo yesterday China would not interfere in countries' internal affairs such as human rights, but also insisted its relations with Africa and Latin America posed no threat to the interests of other countries, in particular the United States.

In Egypt, Wen's delegation signed agreements on communications, trade and energy, and later signed a million deal to help fund an overhaul of Ghana's unreliable telephone networks.

Ghanaian officials said Beijing might finance a 0 million hydroelectric dam in northern Ghana which could boost the West African country's gold and iron ore industries.

''The president (John Kufuor of Ghana) presented the Bui Dam project to the Chinese as one of his priority projects and we're confident it will get funding,'' Yaw Afari-Donkor, Ghana's Ambassador in Beijing, told Reuters today.

Wen was due to stay in the Republic of Congo until tomorrow, continuing on to South Africa, Angola, Uganda and Tanzania.

REUTERS MP PM2330