To a 21-gun salute, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo welcomed Mr Hu at the airport Wednesday in the capital, Abuja, where the Chinese leader's plane landed in a first sub-Saharan Africa stop in a tour that has included the United States, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

Nigeria is the top African producer of crude and the seventh largest in the world, normally pumping 2.5 million barrels per day.

In January, China's state-controlled oil firm CNOOC announced it had reached a deal to pay US$2.3 billion for a 45-percent state in a Nigerian offshore oil field. With 130 million people, Nigeria is also a major market for Chinese-produced goods.

In the last five years, China's trade with Africa has grown fourfold to US$40 billion in 2005.

China's growth has sparked a global race with the West for markets and industrial resources.

Africa has become a frontier of opportunity for the world's most populous country and its fastest growing economy.

Mr Hu is scheduled to head in a few days to Kenya, in East Africa.