Hu arrives in Pak to warm up ties

Islamabad: Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Pakistan on Thursday for a visit that is expected to cement an 'all-weather relationship' underpinned for decades by their suspicion of India.

Hu arrived from India where he agreed with leaders to expand economic relations, sweep away mistrust and speed up efforts to resolve border disputes.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met Hu at the airport where he was greeted by a 21-gun salute.

Hu will be keen to demonstrate China's steadfast support for Pakistan -- and is expected to sign a broad range of agreements to underline that -- despite warming Indian ties, analysts said.

"There's a redefining of the relationship. The Chinese are demonstrating they're keen to have strong relations with both Pakistan and India,'' said former Pakistani foreign secretary Tanvir Ahmad Khan. "This is partly because China does not want to leave the South Asian subcontinent to other external powers."

"They'll try to demonstrate that friendship with India is not at the expense of Pakistan," he said. Hu's visit is the first by a Chinese President in a decade and marks the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

On Friday, Hu will deliver a live television address to the Pakistani nation, the first foreign leader to do so since the then US President Bill Clinton in 2000.

The constancy of the China-Pakistan friendship contrasts sharply with the on-off relationship Pakistan has had with the United States.

"China is the only country, when it comes to the national security of Pakistan, which Islamabad trusts. No one else," said Tarique Niazi, an analyst at the University of Wisconsin, who has written extensively on Sino-Pakistan relations.

For the past five years, Pakistan has been a US ally in a global war on terrorism, and has been supplied with long-coveted US weapons and generous aid, but many Pakistanis see the United States as a fickle friend.

They remember how the United States used Pakistan to help push the Soviets out of Afghanistan, and then walked away from the chaos that followed. Pakistan's military also has bitter memories of the United States stopping arms sales because of Pakistan's nuclear programme, and sanctions imposed after its nuclear tests in 1998.

The United States also recently declined to offer energy-hungry Pakistan a nuclear power deal, even as it struck a landmark nuclear cooperation agreement with India. Analysts believe China has supported Pakistan's missile and nuclear weapons programme for decades. It is also Pakistan's main supplier of conventional arms and provides hundreds of millions of dollars of development finance.

Two-way trade increased 39 per cent last year to $4.26 billion, according to Chinese figures. The two countries are expected to announce a free trade agreement which they hope will push trade past $8 billion by 2008. They also want each other's help to secure energy supplies.

China is helping build Gwadar port on Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast, in the hope that one day it could provide a fast route for West Asian oil supplies.