Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi meets China's vice-president and leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping in Beijing.

As part of a three-day diplomatic visit, Mursi later met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

China's state Xinhua news agency said Mursi's visit was a sign he wanted to shift Egypt's traditional diplomatic focus away from the West and that China stood ready to help Egypt's economic recovery.

Beijing had generally comfortable relations with former President Hosni Mubarak's regime, but ties with Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood-associated government were less clear.

Mursi, will next visit Iran - the first trip there by an Egyptian leader in three decades.