China's Hu greets African leaders for summit

BEIJING, Nov 4: China's President Hu Jintao began hosting delegates from more than 40 African nations in Beijing today, seeking to bolster his country's influence on the resource-rich but economically backward continent.

The weekend summit, which follows a dialogue and trade forum, underscores China's deepening links with Africa, whose mineral and oil wealth it covets and whose countries form an important strategic bloc vote in world bodies.

Hu, with smiles and handshakes, began greeting visiting leaders one by one at an official welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen square. The formal opening was due at 0730 hrs (IST).

China is expected to announce a package of measures covering aid, trade and social development for Africa during the meeting amid concerns from rights groups about links with Sudan and Zimbabwe.

Yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao declined to detail any figures about aid or loan concessions China may announce, but dismissed accusations of a new form of colonialism in Africa.

''No African governments or people accuse China of practising neo-colonialism on the continent,'' he told a news conference. ''The people who once suffered under colonialism in China and Africa know best what is colonialism.'' China's trade with Africa is expected to top 50 billion dollars this year, and while the summit is largely about handshakes and banquets, analysts also expect it to be an opportunity to cement trade and investment deals that have been in the pipeline.

China and Liberia have signed a preliminary deal to allow China's second-largest state oil and gas firm, Sinopec Group, to explore for oil and gas in the western African state, Henry Boima Fahnbulleh, Liberian Assistant Minister for African-Asian Affairs, told Reuters.

Ghana's energy minister said on Thursday it was close to clinching a 600 million dollars deal with China's Sino Hydro Corporation to build at 400 megawatt hydroelectric dam in the north of the West African country.

And Chinese consortium recently signed a 3 billion dollars iron ore deal in Gabon, which includes extending a railway and building a bulk commodities and container port.

Reuters