BEIJING - Blue Bird Corp, a leading manufacturer of school buses in the United States, is looking for potential partners in a bid to enter the huge Chinese school bus market, according to its CEO.

"We've met several potential partners (bus makers in China) in the last few days and we've got more ahead of us," said Philip Horlock at a school bus exhibition fair in Beijing on Thursday.

Horlock said the company recently rated China as a priority market and the feedback it received at the exhibition fair has been overwhelmingly positive.

"I am more than positive (about the prospects for school buses). I see the government is behind it, the people want school buses, they want the business," he said.

The international fair, the first of its kind in China, was organized after the safety of school buses became a national priority in the wake of a string of road accidents involving school pupils and preschoolers in the last two months of 2011.