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Wen strengthens ties with Africa
 Wen and Mbeki signed cooperations in Cape Town on Wednesday. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has marked the latest stage of his eight-day African journey by signing a series of cooperation agreements with South Africa. Wen arrived Wednesday in Cape Town, where he signed a key agreement for a strategic partnership with South African President Thabo Mbeki. Wen is visiting seven African nations on his trip, which began Saturday in Egypt, and includes Ghana, the Republic of Congo, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. His journey comes just two months after Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya. Wen's journey to the resource-rich African continent has been viewed in some quarters as a drive to advance China's economic resources objectives, particularly its need for oil. For example, Angola, where Wen on Tuesday pledged to forge greater economic and political relations, is already China's biggest supplier of crude oil. Chinese state-run oil company Sinopec has been exploring offshore from Angola and is to build a $3 billion oil refinery at the Angolan port city of Lobito capable of producing 240,000 barrels per day. But Chinese officials say it is wrong to view China's growing ties with Africa as being simply about securing energy supplies, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. They say cooperation with Africa is for "mutual benefit" and is designed to help African economic development. Trade expansionChina's overall trade with Africa has grown rapidly in recent years, rising from $10.6 billion in 2000 to $40 billion last year, according to Chinese government statistics quoted by Xinhua. Earlier this month, China signed a $1.3 billion deal with Zimbabwe to build new coal mines and thermal power stations that will help relieve an energy shortage there. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is at odds with many Western nations, has sought to strengthen his ties with China. The most important of the South African agreements, jointly signed by Wen and Mbeki, aims to strengthen a strategic partnership between the two nations. Other agreements cover trade, science and technology, agriculture and economic and political ties. Wen told a press conference in Cape Town that China provided more than 900 infrastructure projects to African countries, including a railway line between Tanzania and Zambia, Xinhua reported "I am visiting South Africa to strengthen China-South Africa friendship, enhance political mutual trust, expand cooperation of mutual benefit and promote common development," Wen said. Wen is to attend a forum on Sino-South African trade and investment on Thursday, before visiting Tanzania and Uganda. 
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