Beijing - China and Russia signed deals valued at 3.5 billion dollars on Tuesday ahead of talks between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, a Russian official said. The two largest deals, each worth 500 million dollars, were loans from the China Development Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China to Russia's national development bank, VEB, and its second-largest bank, VTB, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said.
The two sides also signed agreements covering construction, roads, railways and energy-saving at a Beijing business forum, Zhukov said.
He said customs officials had agreed to form a working group "to improve customs clearing procedures to make Chinese imports to Russia transparent."
Wen later hosted a state welcome for Putin at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, where the two leaders held closed talks.
They were scheduled to attend a signing ceremony later Tuesday and address an evening celebration to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the former Soviet Union.
China's Foreign Ministry said negotiators met again on Tuesday "to exchange views on China-Russia energy cooperation" after at a bilateral energy forum on Sunday apparently failed to produce any new agreement on oil and gas cooperation.
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency said officials had discussed "roadmaps on gas cooperation" on Sunday.
Russian media had earlier quoted officials as saying major energy deals would be among more than 20 agreements worth about 5.5 billion dollars.
Chinese state media said an agreement was possible on building an oil refinery in the northern city of Tianjin between the China National Petroleum Corporation and Russia's Rosneft, but Zhukov said that no energy deal was agreed by Tuesday morning.
The Russian agency said the two sides would sign an agreement on setting up a presidential hotline between China and Russia, while Chinese media said an agreement was likely on advance notification of ballistic missile launches.
The China Daily newspaper on Tuesday said other planned deals included one for telecommunications equipment valued at 200 million dollars, and four agreements for the building of cement plants.
A deal for China to build a high-speed railway in Russia could also be signed on Tuesday, the newspaper quoted Tan Jijun, an expert at the China Foreign Affairs University, as saying.
"Facing the financial crisis, Russia is particularly eager to develop its trade and business with China in a wide range of areas, including not only the energy cooperation but also in the high-tech sector," Tan said.
Putin was also scheduled to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Central Asian security grouping, on Wednesday.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded in 2001 to enhance security cooperation between its six member states China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Bilateral trade value between Russia and China reached 56.83 billion dollars last year, but fell to 17 billion dollars in the first half of 2009.
