Chinese President Hu Jintao met Sunday with the visiting emir of Kuwait as energy-hungry China and the oil-rich Gulf state look to push economic ties to a higher level.
Hu welcomed Sheik Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, with the Kuwaiti leader saying the two sides plan to see a number of agreements signed.
"I believe these agreements will push Kuwait-China relations to a higher level," he told Hu, giving no details.
The two sides in 2005 signed a deal to build an oil refinery in southern China's Guangdong province in what Chinese state media has previously called the nation's largest ever joint venture.
The Kuwait Times has estimated the value of the project at nine billion dollars and said it could come on-line in 2013.
The venture was to be jointly run by the nation's top refiner, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, and Kuwait Petroleum Corp, previous Chinese media reports have said.
It will include a refinery and an ethylene plant to be located in Nansha city, Guangdong province, the reports said.
Guangdong is China's industrial and manufacturing heartland and the project has been hailed as a way to ensure adequate energy supplies for the economically vital region.
Just last month, Kuwait announced it had awarded a 403-million-dollar contract to Sinopec to build five oil and gas rigs in the Gulf state to help boost Kuwait's oil production capacity to four million barrels per day by 2020.
The Kuwaiti monarch, who arrived in China on Sunday, is on a four-day state visit.
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