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Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2004

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  Hu, who came to Cuba on a personal invitation from President Fidel Castro, flew in from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Santiago, Chile. He also visited Argentina and Brazil on his first trip to Latin America since taking office in 2003.

Earlier Tuesday, Hu was accompanied by Defense Minister Raul Castro, the president's younger brother, at a forum of about 400 Cuban and Chinese business people negotiating new trade between the ideological allies.

"Cuba is one of China's largest commercial partners in Latin America," Hu told the gathering. "We share common ideals allowing us to follow our own path of development whatever the international situation may be."

Relations between the two nations were tense during the Cold War, when the Caribbean island was strongly allied with the Soviet Union, but warmed after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and Cuba lost its preferential trade and aid deals with the Soviet bloc.

In a ceremony Tuesday, Castro bestowed the Jose Marti Honorary Order on Hu. He stood up from his wheelchair, for the first time publicly after shattering his kneecap in an accidental fall last month, while the Chinese and Cuban national anthems played. He leaned on a metal cane with an arm support.

"Socialism will definitively remain as the only real hope for peace and survival of our species," Castro said. "That is precisely what the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China has demonstrated."

Castro ended his comments by saying Cuba had "enormous admiration for the legendary and revolutionary China," a country that is now also Cuba's third-largest trading partner.

China accounts for 10 percent of the island's foreign trade, trailing Venezuela and Spain.

The presidents looked on Monday as ministers and business leaders signed 16 agreements for China to purchase nickel and invest in processing and exploration for the mineral.

Under the accords, starting next year Cuba will provide 4,400 tons of nickel annually to China.

The agreements also call for the $500 million Chinese investment in a new nickel plant in Moa, in the eastern region of Holguin, Cuba's Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia told reporters Tuesday.

China also allowed Cuba a 10-year extension to repay four interest-free loans provided between 1990 and 1994, during Cuba's severe post-Soviet economic crisis.

China will also donate $6 million to Cuban hospitals, as well as cloth for school uniforms worth about another $6 million.

China also agreed to finance 1 million television sets for the Cuban market.

There were also cooperation agreements in the fields of biotechnology, telecommunications and meteorology, as well as plans to teach Chinese to Cuban students.

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