MOSCOW, May 26: New Chinese President Hu Jintao held informal talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday at the start of a week-long visit to Russia, his first foreign tour since becoming head of state in March.

The two leaders were joined only by their wives, Lyudmilla Putin and Liu Yongqing, at Mr Putin’s Novo-Ogarevo country residence west of Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported.

“This is my first foreign trip since my election as president of China and Russia was my first stop. This shows how much importance we attach to the development of ties with Russia,” Mr Hu was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Mr Putin for his part remarked that Mr Hu was an “experienced politician” who had “special feelings for Russia.”

The Chinese president, who landed in Moscow earlier in the day, is making a 10-day tour that will also take him to the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations summit in the French spa town of Evian as well as to Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

But Russia is the first and longest leg of the tour, in a measure of the importance China attaches to nurturing special ties with Russia.

However, observers say that Russia has shifted towards a more West-leaning policy under Putin, particularly since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

“Russia is trying to achieve a balanced foreign policy between East and West,” said Elizabeth Wishnick, a scholar at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University and the author of a book on Sino-Russian ties.

“China is an important country for Russia, but the Russian leaders feel deeply that they have European roots,” she said.

Hu Jintao, accompanied by a large delegation including Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Minister of Commerce Lu Fuyuan, will stay in Moscow for a summit on Thursday of the Shanghai Cooperation Forum, a group that includes China, Russia and four Central Asian republics.

And in the most symbolic part of the trip, Hu, 60, will spend two days in Saint Petersburg for celebrations on Friday and Saturday marking the former imperial capital’s 300th anniversary.

Despite some divergences, Russia and China share common concerns.

They both oppose the long-term presence of US forces in Central Asia, traditionally of vital strategic concern by both Beijing and Moscow, and favour a strong United Nations role to counterbalance Washington’s dominance.

China’s booming economy has also turned the country into an increasingly valuable economic partner for Russia, especially in the latter’s undeveloped far eastern regions. China is also a major purchaser of Russian weapons.

Leaders of the two Asian giants are expected to confirm the construction of a 2,400-kilometre oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to the Chinese city of Daqing, bringing Russian crude to energy-hungry China.

“It’s a very important relationship. China is a very dynamic neighbour and a rising world power. In many ways it is far ahead of Russia,” commented Asia expert Dmitry Trenin, deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, a Washington-based think tank.—AFP