Chinese premier arrives in Pakistan
Mr Wen began his trip with talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Business deals worth billions of dollars are expected to be signed.
The Chinese premier arrived in Pakistan after talks in India, Pakistan's rival.
Correspondents say Mr Wen will seek to reassure his hosts in Islamabad that they remain important allies, despite China's improving ties with India.
Following years of mistrust, China is now India's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade expected to touch $60bn (£38bn) during this fiscal year. The two countries agreed on Thursday to lift that figure to $100bn (£64bn) by 2015.
China has been an ally of Pakistan's for years. It has provided it with military hardware and is also helping the country build nuclear reactors.
It invests much more in Pakistan than it does in India.
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says Pakistan has relied to date mainly on offering up its strategic geo-political location should China need it.
However, our correspondent says there is now some recognition that Pakistan needs to offer China more in return for the support it gives Islamabad.
One key attraction could be the trade route for Chinese goods that is being developed with Chinese assistance from Kashmir to the deep-water, strategic Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.
But for the Chinese to use that, our correspondent says, they will want to see the development of better infrastructure and more security in Pakistan.
Pakistan, China celebrate 'all-weather' friendship
Pakistan calls China its "all-weather" friend — an ally that offers consistent, no-strings-attached support during turbulent times. However, the reality is a more complicated mix of economics, security and self-interest.
Those complexities will be on display during the three-day visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who arrived in Pakistan Friday. Islamabad has been grappling with an Islamist insurgency as well as political and economic turmoil in recent years, and Wen's trip — the first by a Chinese premier in five years — provides Pakistan with a rare occasion to play host to a foreign leader.
Wen's plane touched down under heavy security at a Pakistan air base, where a red carpet was rolled out and a full honor guard was on display. Pakistan's top civilian and military leaders, and nearly its full Cabinet, were on hand to greet the Chinese premier and his hundreds-strong delegation.
The visit will focus on investment and bilateral trade, but will also be used to showcase ties between the Asian neighbors that have endured and even flourished despite Beijing's drawing closer to Islamabad's archrival India.
China is Pakistan's closest friend in the region, giving Islamabad military aid and technical assistance, including nuclear technology. Crucially, it is perceived by many here as not distinguishing between Pakistan and India and — unlike Islamabad's so-called "fair-weather" friends in Washington — doesn't demand anything in return for assistance.
But Beijing is hardly left empty-handed from its ties with Pakistan, which serves as a close, cheap source of natural resources to fuel its growing economy.
"China will provide assistance in 36 projects in Pakistan to be completed in five years... Basically this is a five-year development plan," the Dawn quoted Kaira, as saying.
He said that 14 billion dollars would come through a joint economic cooperation group, five billion dollars in other business agreements, while deals worth another 10 billion dollars were expected to be concluded at a business leaders' meeting on Saturday.
"Overall the Chinese investment is expected to be around 30 billion dollars," Kaira added.
Although the deals are vitally important to the moribund Pakistani economy, they pale into comparison with Jiabao's agreement in Pakistan's archrival India on Thursday, where New Delhi and Beijing agreed to double bilateral trade to 100 billion dollars by 2015.
'US won't object to n-deal between Pakistan and China
The US will not object to any civil nuclear deal between Pakistan and China if it abides by international rules of such agreements, and chances of the US making such a deal with Pakistan too cannot be ruled out, the American envoy here has said.
US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter said Friday that the US had recently made a civil nuclear deal with India and the chances of such a deal with Pakistan also cannot be ruled out, the Express Tribune reported.
Munter made the remarks while talking to media here.
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