Chinese President starts state visit to Mali

Earlier, he visited Saudi Arabia. From Mali, Hu will travel to three other African countries -- Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius.

This is Hu's second African tour since the landmark China-Africa summit in 2006 when he announced eight policy measures promoting ties with Africa, including massive tariff cuts and debt exemptions for scores of African countries, and doubling aid to Africa over a three-year period.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun expressed his hopes last week that Hu's visit would "promote a new type of strategic partnership between China and Africa, and the implementation of policy measures announced at the summit."

"China will fully implement the eight measures for China-Africa practical cooperation agreed at the summit despite the ongoing global financial crisis," Zhai said.

In the past two years, China has increased aid to African countries, eliminated tariff for goods from some least developed Africa nations and canceled part of the debts owed by African countries, Zhai said.

"The year 2009 is an important year for China-Africa relations to continue to move forward and will create new development opportunities for the bilateral ties. The Chinese leaders will continue to take the development of relations with Africa as a top priority of Chinese diplomacy," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told Xinhua last month.

Editor:Liu Anqi