Chinese FM starts Africa tour

Jan 1, 2006 (COTONOU) — China’s foreign minister signed a string of accords in Benin, officials said, as part of a whistle-stop tour of seven African nations as Beijing bolsters economic ties on the continent.

Li Zhaoxing agreed to write off debt, to grant a new 30 million yuan (2.9 million euro, 3.8 million dollar) loan and to offer an aid package, Beninese foreign ministry officials said.

Neither the amount of debt cancelled nor the small west African state’s total debt owed to China were given. The aid package was to help improve administration and transport infrastructure.

From Benin Li flew on Monday to Equatorial Guinea ahead of visits in the coming days to Guinea-Bissau, Chad, the Central African Republic, Eritrea and Botswana.

China is keen to gain access to Africa’s massive raw material reserves to feed the breakneck growth seen in its own economy. In doing so it has been criticised for dealing with countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe spurned by the West for human rights abuses.

In November China’s courtship of Africa culminated in a summit of 40 African countries in the Chinese capital, with President Wen Jintao saying China wanted to more than double trade with Africa to 100 billion dollars a year by 2010.

(AFP)