Chinese President hails new era of Pakistan ties

PAKISTAN: Chinese President Hu Jintao promised a new era of cooperation with Pakistan as he arrived for a visit that will include the signing of a free trade accord with Beijing's closest ally.

Hu received a lavish ceremonial welcome for his four-day visit, the first in a decade by a Chinese leader, which is aimed at reassuring the Islamic republic of his support despite warming ties with Pakistan's rival India.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz personally greeted Hu and his wife at Chaklala Airbase near Islamabad after they flew in from Mumbai following a landmark three-day visit.

Soldiers fired off a 21-gun salute for the Chinese leader and huge red banners showing Hu and his Pakistani counterpart were strung up around the normally staid capital Islamabad and along the route from the airport.

"I am visiting Pakistan to deepen friendship, expand cooperation and plan for the future of our relationship," Hu said in an arrival statement, adding that the visit would "usher in a new stage of China-Pakistan relations."

Hu said he looked forward to having an "in depth exchange of views" with Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders on "bilateral relations as well as international and regional issues of mutual interest".

Salman Bashir, Pakistan's ambassador to China, told the official Associated Press of Pakistan news agency that a free trade agreement would be signed on Friday after talks between Hu and Musharraf.

Hu will also address the Pakistani nation live on state television, speaking in Chinese with Urdu subtitles and becoming the first foreign dignitary to do so since then-US President Bill Clinton in 2000.

On Saturday he will meet business people in the eastern city of Lahore.

Recent reports that Pakistan and China may sign a nuclear deal similar to one made by India and the United States earlier this year were "speculative", Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

"However we have a long-standing cooperation in the civil nuclear field with China and a broad ranging agreement was signed in February 2006 when President Musharraf visited China."

China has built an atomic power plant in Pakistan while a second is under construction, despite international concerns about an atomic black market run by the disgraced father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, A.Q. Khan.

Beijing remains Islamabad's largest arms supplier and the two are jointly developing a fighter jet. It has also invested millions of dollars in a "megaport" in southwest Pakistan to gain access to the Arabian Sea.

Analysts said however that China wanted to woo India as well as Pakistan to shore up Beijing's international role and prevent New Delhi being "exploited" by the United States as a strategic rival.

Hu said in New Delhi that he welcomed improving relations between Pakistan and India, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947 and have failed to resolve a rancorous border dispute over Kashmir.

"China is trying to balance its relations with Pakistan and India in the context of its role as a global economic power," said analyst and retired Pakistani army general Talat Masood.

Hundreds of extra security forces were deployed in Islamabad for Hu's visit, with police commandos and plainclothes officers lining the airport road and sweeping roadside verges for possible bombs.

Islamic militants and tribal insurgents have carried out a series of attacks on Chinese workers and interests in Pakistan in the past two years in order to derail Beijing's investment in the country.

ISLAMABAD, Friday, AFP