Pakistan, on the front line of the US war on Al-Qaeda and battling a Taliban insurgency in its northwest, considers China its closest foreign ally and treated Wen and a massive business delegation to a red-carpet welcome.

The two countries signed 13 agreements and memorandums of understanding in fields including energy, rail transport, reconstruction, agriculture and culture, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters.

"A major breakthrough is China's agreement on cooperation in the energy sector," the minister said.

"The Chinese government has assured they will fund all the energy projects of Pakistan," he said.

"China will provide assistance in 36 projects in Pakistan to be completed in five years," he said. "Basically this is a five-year development plan."

He said 14 billion dollars will come through a joint economic cooperation group, five billion dollars in other business agreements, while deals worth another 10 billion dollars are expected to be concluded at a business leaders' meeting on Saturday.

"Overall the Chinese investment is expected to be around 30 billion dollars," he said.

Although the deals are vitally important to the moribund Pakistani economy, they pale in comparison with Wen's agreement in Pakistan's arch rival India on Thursday where the two countries agreed to double bilateral trade to 100 billion dollars by 2015.

Wen's visit was accompanied by blanket security as Shiite Muslims -- 20 percent of the population -- marked their holiest day, Ashura, which was last year marred by a bomb at a Karachi religious procession that killed 43 people.

"We have unprecedented relations with China. The whole nation is proud of the Pakistan-China friendship," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told PTV.

The Chinese premier held talks with Gilani after being greeted at the airport by Pakistan's entire cabinet and military chiefs, who depend on Chinese hardware, and a guard of honour with a 21-gun salute.

Wen will meet President Asif Ali Zardari, attend a business cooperation summit and inaugurate a new Chinese cultural centre in Islamabad on Saturday. He will address a joint session of the Pakistani parliament before leaving on Sunday.

Although no specific mention was made of nuclear power, talks are believed to be ongoing on China building a one-gigawatt nuclear power plant as part of Pakistani plans to produce 8,000 megawatts of electricity by 2025 and overcome acute energy shortages.

The West has expressed concern about the security of Pakistan's nuclear material, but China has built a 300-megawatt nuclear power reactor at Chashma in central Punjab province and another of the same capacity is under way.

Without going into details, officials in Pakistan admit the country has a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with China, a counter-weight to India's agreement with the United States on nuclear energy cooperation.

"We have developed an energy cooperation mechanism, it relates to all sectors of energy, including wind, coal and hydro energy," Kaira said

Pakistan depends on China's financial and political clout to offset the perceived threat from rival India and rescue its economy from the doldrums of catastrophic flooding, a severe energy crisis and poor foreign investment.

China will open branches of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), its top private bank, in Karachi and Islamabad, Kaira said.

Pakistan's prime minister has expressed hope that trade will rise to between 15 and 18 billion dollars over the next five years.

But security issues will also likely weigh on the agenda. China has been concerned about the threat of Islamist militants infiltrating its territory from Pakistan, particularly in its western Xinjiang region.

"We achieved our targets, the outcome of the visit is beyond our expectations. It is a historic day," Pakistan's ambassador to Beijing Masood Khan said.

Pakistan and China have a strategic partnership and "this partnership has been further strengthened," he said.

"This strategic partnership is for peace and security in the region and is not a cause of threat against anyone," he said.

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