Chinese President Hu Jintao will pay state visits to eight African countries starting from the last week of January.

The foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regular press briefing on January 24 that President Hu will visit Cameroon, Sudan, Namibia, South Africa, the Seychelles, Liberia, Zambia and Mozambique from January 30 to Feb 10.

Liu said President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to Africa next week will follow up on action taken at the China-Africa cooperation summit held in Beijing last year.

Chinese investment in Africa has reached new highs in recent years, highlighted by Hu's two previous trips to the continent since he took office in 2003.

Hu Jintao’s third trip, beginning next Tuesday, is intended to broaden the nation's reach and strengthen ties with the continent. The upcoming trip, Hu's first overseas mission of 2007, will demonstrate that Africa is high on China's diplomatic agenda.

"The eight nations are representative of Africa as a whole," he said. "They cover the north, south, west, east and center of the continent."

He added that the wide-ranging itinerary underlined the importance the government attached to relations with Africa.

He also said Hu's visit to Seychelles, a Chinese president's first visit to the tiny Indian Ocean islands, demonstrated Beijing's policy of treating countries on an equal footing no matter how large they are.

China's diplomatic drive in Africa in 2007 started with Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing's seven-nation tour of mostly smaller countries from December 31 to January 8.

In recent years it has become a tradition for new foreign ministers to start their tenures with a tour of African nations.

A series of visits including the president and premier's respective African trips thrust China-Africa relations into the media spotlight at home and abroad last year.

The events reached a climax in November with the Beijing Summit of China-Africa Cooperation Forum, attended by the leaders of more than 40 African nations.

At the summit, China proposed an eight-point package to support African development, including reducing debt, cutting tariffs on African imports, increasing aid, improving vocational training and increasing investment.

Liu said the major task of Hu's trip would be to ensure the package's pledges were being carried out and it also aimed to further strengthen traditional friendship between China and the African countries.