Travelling with a large entourage of Chinese officials and executives, Hu was greeted at Riyadh airport by Saudi King Abdullah for a three-day visit which underscores the growing importance of the relationship between the world's biggest oil exporter and its most populous country.

"Saudi Arabia is the biggest oil exporter to China. We value the role it plays and look forward to strengthening cooperation in this field," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said earlier.

The visit will also mark the growing investments by Chinese companies in Saudi non-energy sectors, and their interest in taking part in the Saudi government's massive infrastructure development programme.

Both countries were stressing their increasing cooperation in fields like health, science and education, and they were expected to sign several accords on trade and other cooperation.

During the airport greeting, Hu introduced to King Abdullah 12 Chinese schoolchildren, survivors of the May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province that killed or left missing 87,000 people.

The children offered the king their thanks for his donations in support of the victims and Abdullah gave the children gifts, the official SPA news agency said.

Chinese news agency Xinhua, quoting an official statement released at the start of the visit, said talks between Hu and King Abdullah would focus on China-Saudi ties as well as "global and regional issues of common concern, including ways of addressing the international financial crisis."

China's trade with Saudi Arabia has more than doubled since 2005, rising 65 percent last year alone to reach 41.8 billion dollars, as oil and gas prices skyrocketed and the Chinese economy required more fuel to keep expanding.

According to news reports, Chinese oil processing giant Sinopec could ink agreements with the Saudi state oil company Aramco on participating in the construction of two Saudi refineries.

Since 2004 Sinopec has also been exploring for oil in Saudi Arabia together with Aramco.

China is also interested in getting a share of Saudi Arabia's massive 120 billion dollar, five-year plan of investments in industry, education and infrastructure, and in providing workers to the manpower-hungry Middle East country.

Chinese officials say there are 62 Chinese companies operating in the kingdom with nearly 22,000 workers on their payrolls, 15,800 of them Chinese. Chinese companies have submitted bids to take part in projects for roads, railways, power generation, port development and other areas.

Chinese companies are also involved in large investments in mining and ore refining.

On Friday, Saudi officials announced that a consortium including China Railway Engineering had won the 6.8-billion-riyal (1.8-billion-dollar) civil works contract for a 444-kilometre (275-mile) high-speed railway linking the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina through Jeddah.

Chinese embassy spokesman Yuan Yuan said telecom giant Huawei Technology has become the largest supplier of telecommunications for the more than two million hajj pilgrims to Mecca each year in cooperation with Saudi Telecom Company.

To mark China's growing business presence in Saudi Arabia, Hu was expected to make a visit on Wednesday to Riyadh Cement, which has contracted China's Sinoma International Engineering to expand its cement production lines.

On Wednesday, Hu will also meet Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Abdulrahman Hamad al-Attiyah to discuss trade liberalisation measures, according to the Chinese embassy.

Hu will leave Riyadh on Thursday morning for Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius. It will be his fourth visit to Africa as Beijing looks to secure oil and mineral supplies from the continent.

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