A Russian deputy prime minister said in Beijing Monday that Russia and China would sign 17 agreements to build nuclear power plants and explore for oil and gas when Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov visited Beijing this month.

The contracts will also cover scientific cooperation, which will help the two countries increase trade to US$60 billion by 2009, a year earlier than had been expected, the deputy prime minister, Aleksandr Zhukov, said.

"Our trade was up 25 percent year-on-year so far this year to US$30 billion," Zhukov said at a news conference. "Our cooperation is going well across the board, especially in the trade of energy, oil and gas."

Aleksandr Livshits, deputy general manager of Russian Aluminum, or Rusal, plans to hold a news conference Thursday about Rusal's cooperation with China's aluminum smelters, according to an invitation by the Russian Embassy in Beijing.

'More balanced growth' lifts outlook for EUSergei Bogdanchikov, chief executive of Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, is scheduled to speak at a news conference in Beijing on Friday, the invitation says. Rosneft is expected to export as much as 48.4 million tons of oil to China by 2010 under a 2004 contract between the two countries.