Chinese President on Africa Tour

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Hu's 12-day journey will take him to Cameroon, Liberia, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Seychelles and Sudan, where Hu has been pressured by the U.N. to use China's leverage as a big oil customer to resolve the crisis in the Darfur region.

Key themes of the trip will include boosting business ties and following through on promises of aid, including debt-relief and poverty alleviation.

Trade between China and Africa has soared fourfold this decade, to $40 billion in 2005. Beijing has also become a major supplier of aid, last year announcing $10 billion in assistance from 2006 to 2009.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said Hu will sign a number of accords and economic agreements, a move that may be aimed at smoothing over protests and criticisms of Chinese motives.

While China's growing involvement has been largely welcomed by African governments, Chinese business practices and willingness to support corrupt regimes have been criticized as harming local workers and undermining attempts to strengthen good governance.

China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has so far resisted U.N. attempts to force the Khartoum government to accept U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur. More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million people have been displaced in Darfur as a result of a four-year-old conflict between rebels and government-backed militia.

However, China has recently raised expectations that it is heeding the message by calling on Sudan to cooperate with the world body in finding a solution to the civil strife.

Xinhua said Hu will inaugurate an economic cooperation zone during his stop in Zambia, a Cold War era ally and a key supplier of copper. Miners there have protested over abusive conditions at a Chinese-owned mine and Chinese political and economic influence became an issue in last year's presidential election.

In South Africa, which has complained that influxes of cheap Chinese clothes could devastate the textile industry, Xinhua said China will make a donation of 20 million yuan ($2.6 million) "as part of efforts to help the country in skill training and poverty alleviation."