However China's foreign ministry insisted the subsequent African legs of Hu's week-long journey was about more than the controversial issue of natural resources.

Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Beijing was interested in strengthening energy ties with Saudi Arabia, which has the biggest oil reserves in the world.

"Saudi Arabia is the biggest oil exporter to China. We value the role it plays and look forward to strengthening cooperation in this field," Jiang said, although she gave no details.

Trade with Saudi Arabia has more than doubled since 2005, rising 65 percent last year alone to reach 41.8 billion dollars, as China has bought increasing amounts of oil and gas.

Assistant Chinese foreign minister Zhai Jun also said last week when briefing about Hu's trip that some energy documents with Saudi Arabia would be signed if "negotiations went well", although he similarly gave no details.

After three days in Saudi Arabia, Hu will visit Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius in what is his first overseas trip of 2009.

An Africa sojourn has become an annual New Year diplomatic ritual for China's leaders, who maintain they are primarily interested in building trade ties that are beneficial to both sides, as well as political friendships.

But China's drive to secure natural resources from African states -- including those spurned by the West such as Sudan -- has attracted much attention and criticism around the world.

Some politicians and companies in the West have criticised China's "no-strings-attached" attitude towards aid and accused it of plundering African resources with no regard for the consequences.

Others have raised concerns about growing Chinese clout there.

Beijing hotly rejects such criticisms and has taken pains to highlight its good intentions in Africa when discussing Hu's current trip.

"Our energy cooperation in Africa is based on equality and international market practices," Jiang said.

"It is open and transparent and does not affect the interests of any third parties. So it is not necessary to worry about China's cooperation with Africa."

She said Africa still exported much more oil to the United States and Europe than to China.

"Compared to Western countries and developing countries, our cooperation still lags behind," she said.

Assistant Chinese foreign minister Zhai has pointed out that Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius lacked vast natural resources for China to tap into.

Zhai also said Hu would announce fresh assistance to African states during the trip.

Chinese trade with Africa increased to 106.8 billion dollars last year from just under 40 billion dollars in 2005, according to the Chinese commerce ministry.

The World Bank has voiced support for China's involvement in Africa, saying it has added new infrastructure that is badly needed in the fight against poverty.

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