Top Chinese Communist party leader to visit India

Ahead of the visit by Premier Wen Jiabao, senior Chinese Communist Party leader Zhou You Kang will be in India from Sunday on a two-day trip during which the bilateral relations will be discussed.

Zhou, who is ranked ninth in the Chinese power hierarchy, is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and have talks with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, sources said.

India sees the visit with importance as

it comes ahead of Wen's trip, expected in December. "We think it is a very important visit, not only because he is such a senior Politburo Standing Committee Member," National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said when asked to comment on the trip. 

Menon said it would provide a chance to have a "much freer, broader sort of exchange of views" at a very high level with the Chinese side. "We are looking forward very much to that," he said.