Chinese leader to sign `friendship' treaty with Putin

China's President Jiang Zemin has arrived in Russia on a visit intended to cement the "strategic partnership" between the former Communist rivals with a pivotal friendship treaty.

The agreement that Jiang and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to sign after talks in the Kremlin tomorrow will be the first of its kind since 1950, when Josef Stalin and Mao Tse-tung forged a Chinese-Soviet alliance that later turned sour.