China and US seal billion-dollar deals

Jiang is preparing to hand over China's reigns of power

The US and China have signed billions of dollars worth of business deals a day before Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrives in the US.

The deals signed in New York include US investments in alcohol, oil, telecoms and engineering sectors.

About $1.2bn will be invested in the mobile network

"These signings are a tangible example of the vital trade relationship between the US and China," said US Commerce Secretary Don Evans.

Some European companies have also won contracts.

The visit by Mr Jiang expected to be his last US-China summit, which culminates in talks with President George W Bush at his Texas ranch on Friday.

Telecoms and oil

Motorola, Ericsson, Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks signed agreements worth $1.2bn agreements with China United Telecommunications (China Unicom), China's second largest mobile phone operator, to upgrade its mobile phone network and expand in the north and central parts of the country.

Telecoms deals

Motorola: $446m

Nortel: $280m

Ericsson: $150m

Lucent: About $400m

Exxon Mobil and BP both signed deals to expand their joint ventures' in the energy sector.

China Petroleum and Chemical, also known as Sinopec, and Exxon Mobil agreed to proceed with $3bn in refining and petrochemical joint ventures in the coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong.

Sinopec, a unit of state-owned China Petroleum, is the mainland's largest petroleum and petrochemical company.

BP plans to invest $800m next year to build a chemical plant with Sinopec and fuel retail network with PetroChina.

More deals

Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewer, will up its stake in China's Tsingtao Brewery, the country's largest, to 27% from 4.5% over the next seven years.

The Chinese beer market is notoriously difficult to break into because of cheap competition and a fragmented market.

Denmark's Carlsberg has bailed out of the country and Australia's Foster's cut it three breweries back to one.

Axens North America signed an engineering services contract with Shenhua Group to provide the basic design and technical services for a coal liquefaction project in Inner Mongolia.