Liberia switched ties from Taiwan to mainland China three years ago, but in an arrival statement, quoted by China's official Xinhua news agency, Hu said he was in Liberia to "deepen the traditional friendship, enhance mutual understanding and trust."

In a joint statement Liberia said it reiterated its commitment to the one-China policy.

Liberia, recovering from more than a decade of civil war, is the second stop of an eight-nation tour aimed at winning a larger share of Africa's oil and mineral resources for Beijing.

The leaders signed a memorandum of understanding involving the cancellation of all the 15 million dollars of debt owed by Liberia to China.

Sirleaf praised the Chinese president's generosity and urged other world leaders to do the same.

"I thank you Mr President for cancelling all Liberian debt up to 2005 and am calling on presidents of other countries to follow suit," Sirleaf said at a dinner held in honour of Hu.

Sirleaf expressed hope that Hu's visit would bring greater development opportunities to Liberia. The country has an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent, including many of the former guerrillas in the 14-year civil war which ended in 2003.

"Our country is rich in natural resources and we want to put our population and our young people to work," she said.

"But to do so we need... private capital and investors. So Mr President we count on you and your country to help us in that direction," Sirleaf said.

Hu announced a tax exemption on all Liberian exports to China.

China is looking to Africa to feed much of its growing need for energy and natural resources, but its close links with regimes in countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe have raised concerns in the West.

In Sudan, Hu faces international pressure to use China's influence to halt the brutal conflict in the western region of Darfur, which the United States has called genocide.

Sudan is also a major oil supplier to China, however. China takes 60 percent of Sudan's oil output and has used its UN Security Council veto power to block sanctions on the Sudanese government over the conflict.

China, by far the biggest foreign investor in Sudan, is thought to be in a position to persuade Khartoum to accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

"If the Chinese put some pressure on Khartoum, it might have some potential," said Larry Rossin of the Save Darfur coalition, who recently travelled to Khartoum with US envoy Bill Richardson.

"I hope they can use their influence... to press President Omar al-Beshir to implement in good faith the hybrid peacekeeping agreement," Rossin told AFP.

At least 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced in Darfur in four years of fighting.

The Chinese leader also met leaders of the Liberian parliament, including speaker Edwin Snowe, who is at the centre of an impeachment controversy.

Parliament impeached Snowe last week for undermining Liberia's foreign policy when he met Taiwanese government officials in Gambia, but a week later the Supreme Court annulled the censure on the grounds that it was improperly conducted.

Hu also met some of the 500 Chinese peacekeepers serving in the 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL). He attend a state banquet and was due to fly out to Sudan at around 2300 GMT.

He had been scheduled to spend the night in Monrovia but Chinese officials said he would leave for Sudan on Thursday night because no suitable hotel could be found in the war-devastated country.

The Chinese president is also due to visit Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and the Seychelles during his 12-day tour.

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