Cuban President Fidel Castro arrived in the Chinese capital Wednesday for a four-day visit.

www.channelnewsasia.com First created: 26 February 2003 1606 hrs (SST) 0806 hrs (GMT) Last modified: 26 February 2003 1606 hrs (SST) 0806 hrs (GMT) 

Dressed in his signature green military fatigues and cap, President Castro was warmly greeted by a group of Chinese officials at the Capital Airport.

Later Wednesday, the veteran Cuban leader will hold official talks with his long-standing communist counterpart Jiang Zemin, following a formal welcoming ceremony in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

The 76-year-old Cuban president arrived from attending a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He had begun his Asian trip with a three-day visit to Vietnam.

This visit to China is his first since late 1995.

President Castro has developed close personal ties with his Chinese counterpart, who visited Cuba in November 1993 and April 2001.

President Jiang, who is the same age as his Cuban counterpart, is expected to step down as China's president in March after his second term is completed.

Thus, the upcoming talks between the two presidents could be one of the last bilateral presidential meetings for him.

China is Cuba's third most important trading partner after Venezuela, which provides the island with cheap oil, and Spain, which has hotel chains deeply invested in the tourism industry.

China took over as Cuba's main political and financial partner in the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The trade balance however clearly favors China. According to official Chinese figures, in 2001 Cuba exported US$70 million worth of goods to China, while it imported US$547 million worth.