Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Cuba is expected to further enhance the Sino-Latin American ties, a Chinese scholar told Xinhua here Monday.

China and the four Latin American countries have witnessed all-round development of their friendly cooperation in various fields,said Jiang Shixue, deputy director with the Institute of Latin-American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"China and Latin American countries are all developing countries and share many common grounds," he said.

This year Brazilian and Argentina President paid state visits to China, and the year 2001 and 2003 witnessed the China tour by state head of Chile and Cuba respectively.

China and Latin American countries have made progress in political and diplomatic relations as well as in economic and trade cooperation, said Jiang.

According to statistics from the Chinese customs, the trade volume between China and Latin America last year grew 50.4 percent to 26.8 billion US dollars. China-Argentina trade volume reached 3.17 billion US dollars last year, up 122.9 percent year on year.

China's importation of soybeans, iron ores and copper from Latin America has been growing rapidly, said Jiang.

In 2003 China's import volume increased 40 percent, while its import from Latin America soared 79.1 percent, the highest growth rate among all parts of the world.

Last year Brazil gained a trade surplus of 3.7 billion US dollars from China and Argentina 2.3 billion US dollars. China's robust economic growth has contributed to the economic recovery inLatin America, Jiang said.

Jiang also mentioned the trade disputes between the two sides, saying China should increase its direct investment in Latin America.

Only through the simultaneous development of both political and economic relations, can the bilateral cooperation be boosted steadily to a new level, he said.