"The building of the railway will bring great economic vigour to the northern part of Venezuela," he told a press conference, where he also repeated his ambition to boost energy ties with China.

But Chavez pointed out that the two countries' co-operation has expanded beyond energy, noting that co-operation in the field of infrastructure was also playing a very important part in the strategic partnership between the two countries.

He said deals were also signed on US$1.22 billion loans from Beijing to build 20,000 homes and buy 18 Chinese-made oil tankers and 13 oil drills.

Wrapping up his stay in the capital with a series of agreements covering a wide range of sectors on Friday, Chavez met top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao before flying to East China's Shandong Province to continue his six-day visit.

Chavez hailed President Hu Jintao's remarks that China is considering and dealing with Sino-Venezuelan ties from the strategic point of view and expressed his appreciation for China's support for Venezuela's bid to join the UN Security Council.

Chavez's Friday schedule also included a visit to the facilities where initial work is being done on a communications satellite for his country.

Venezuela last year signed a deal with China for the satellite, which is expected to go into orbit by 2008. There are about 29 Venezuelan students now studying satellite technology in Beijing. With Chinese support, they will also assist in the construction of a fibre-optics communications network in Venezuela.

Being the world fifth-largest oil exporter, Venezuela seeks to become a stable oil supplier for China at considerably cheaper price than its other sources, he said.

He presented the reporters with a diagram, showing Venezuela's increasing oil exports to China. "Five years ago, it was almost nothing but now China imports 150,000 barrels of oil a day and that number is growing," he said.

He said his country plans to export 500,000 barrels of oil a day to China by 2009. He also talked about the oil agreements signed on Thursday, dealing with joint work to develop Venezuela's vast oil resources including the Orinoco oil belt and the Sumano region.

(China Daily 08/26/2006 page2)