(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-01-29 09:26

Jan 28 - Less than a year after his last visit, Chinese President Hu Jintao will make another swing through Africa from Tuesday.

Hu's eight nation tour starts in Cameroon and is expected to yield more business deals and aid pledges, part of a flood of Chinese largesse towards the world's poorest continent in the last three years.

Here are some facts about Chinese-African deals and relations:

TRADE RELATIONS:

* Trade links between fast-growing economic powerhouse China and Africa have taken a leap forward since 2004, when President Hu Jintao announced a drive to strengthen relations with the energy- and mineral-rich continent.

* China's exports to Africa rose in that year by 36 percent year-on-year to $13.82 billion, while imports, mostly natural resources, surged 81 percent to $15.65 billion, according to Chinese figures.

-- In 2005, total trade between Africa and China surged again, to $40 billion and is expected to reach $100 billion by 2010.

-- Africa now supplies a third of China's crude oil imports.

* NOTABLE ENERGY/TRADE DEALS:

Jan/Feb 2004 - Total Gabon signs a contract with China's Sinopec under which Gabonese crude oil will be sold to China for the first time.

June 2004 - Chinese Vice-President Zeng Qinghong visits Tunisia, Togo, Benin and South Africa. Zeng's trip to South Africa was marked by agreements including a deal opening the way for the export of South African citrus to China and letters of intent for two big trade and investment projects.

January 2005 - Angola says it plans to use a $2 billion loan from China to repair its infrastructure. China added another $1 billion to its oil-backed loan in March 2006.

July 2005 - China and Nigeria sign an $800 million crude oil sale deal between Petrochina International and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to supply 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day to China.

January 2006 - China's top offshore oil producer CNOOC agrees to pay $2.3 billion for a stake in a Nigerian oil and gas field, its largest ever overseas acquisition.

April 2006 - Algeria awards contracts estimated at $7 billion to Japanese and Chinese consortiums to build parts of a 1,300-km (800-mile) highway running from Tunisia to Morocco.

April 2006 - Hu wraps up an Africa tour by concluding an offshore exploration deal with Kenya. The pact allows China's state-controlled CNOOC to explore in six blocks covering 115,343 sq km (44,500 sq miles) in the north and south of Kenya.

-- Two days earlier Beijing struck a $4 billion deal for drilling licences in Nigeria, including grants for economic and technical cooperation, anti-malarial medicine and rice.

May 2006 - Angola's state-run oil company Sonangol announces Sinopec has won a 40 percent stake in a relinquished part of its lucrative offshore oil Block 18 after proposing a $1.1 billion government signature bonus out of a total investment amounting to more than $1.4 billion.

June 2006 - Beijing says it will plough $35 million into building West Africa's biggest theatre in Senegal, one of its first major moves into high art in Africa. Beijing has also announced debt relief for Senegal worth 160 million Yuan ($20 million).

November 2006 - China and Africa sign 16 agreements worth a total of $1.9 billion. The deals between 12 Chinese firms and 11 African governments and companies, followed Hu's pledge offering $5 billion in loans and credit, and doubling aid by 2009.