"These pacts are concrete proof of our desire to develop pragmatic cooperation," said Hu, the first Chinese president to visit this southern African coastal nation.

No details of the amount of debt Mozambique owes Beijing were given.

The two sides also signed agreements on a soft loan, a credit line to be extended by China's Eximbank and the construction of a Chinese-funded national football stadium.

China also raised the number of tariff-free goods from Mozambique from 190 to 442.

Chinese businesses are at the vanguard of reconstruction efforts in Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony in southeastern Africa which is slowly emerging from the destruction wrought by a 16-year civil war which ended in 1992.

Although bilateral trade last year totalled a relatively modest 210 million dollars (161 million euros), it was five times higher than the figure in 2001.

Around a third of all ongoing road construction projects are being carried out by Chinese firms which can also take the credit for landmark buildings in the seaside capital such as the foreign ministry and the new Joaquim Chissano conference centre.

Mozambique has as yet largely untapped reserves of coal and natural gas -- the kind of natural resources that China is trying to sniff out in order to fuel its booming economy.

At the moment, Mozambican exports to China are largely confined to wood, sugar and other agricultural products.

As elsewhere in Africa, the balance of trade is heavily in Beijing's favour with cheap made-in-China clothing items filling Mozambique's stores.

Hu however has consistently stressed throughout the eight-nation tour that Africa had as much to benefit as China from the burgeoning relationship which has seen trade between Beijing and the continent triple in the last five years.

During a keynote speech in South Africa, which is China's largest trading partner in Africa, Hu said his country would "certainly not do anything harmful to the interests of Africa and its people."

He said almost a century of foreign exploitation in China by Western powers had permanently scarred Beijing and therefore it was against any form of "colonialism" or "slavery."

"China and Africa have extensive common ground and a fine tradition of cooperation on major international issues. It serves our shared interest to strengthen coordination in international affairs," he said.

However, a note of dissent crept in Thursday with European Investment Bank president Philippe Maystadt renewing warnings that aggressive Chinese lending in Africa could drive up debt levels dangerously in the world's poorest continent.

Maystadt called on Chinese banks to apply tougher lending conditions on the "economic viability" of projects and "good governance", and impose evironmental and social requirements.

"For some African countries, if funding comes too easily they are at risk of running up excessive debts," he told reporters in Brussels.

The Chinese leader has been playing up his credentials as a champion of the poor and strongly denied accusations that Beijing was stripping Africa of its natural resources through unequal trade.

"We should ... call on the international community to focus on Africa, urge developed countries to deliver their commitments of improving market access, increasing aid and debt relief and take effective steps to help African peoples resolve their difficulties," he said in Thursday's speech in Pretoria.

Hu heads home on Friday, with a brief stopover in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean.

He began an eight-nation tour of Africa in Cameroon, going on to Liberia, Sudan, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa.

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