The presidents of China and Brazil will meet on Tuesday evening during a Brazilian mission to Beijing designed to cement increasingly close relations between the two countries and sign a package of trade deals and finance for Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company, worth $10bn.
Trade between the two countries has picked up quickly this year after a sharp slowdown as the global economic crisis began to take hold. During the first four months of this year, China replaced the US as Brazil's biggest trading partner, as Chinese demand for Brazilian soya, iron ore and other goods returned to pre-crisis levels.
