Economic diplomacy, with energy and trade high on the agenda, had become the main focus, said Pang Zhongying , a professor of international relations at Tianjin's Nankai University.

Apart from enhancing ties with influential western countries, China had also reached out to developing countries in the Arab world, Africa and Latin America to secure energy supplies for its power-hungry economy, he said.

'Economic ties have increasingly been used to promote closer ties and defuse concerns or even fears about China's rapid development,' Professor Pang said. 'China's diplomacy is entering a new era.'

He said China had started to depart from the famous doctrine of 'hiding one's capacities while biding one's time', first raised by late leader Deng Xiaoping in 1989 and which had dominated the country's diplomatic decision-making for more than a decade.

'What Mr Deng meant at the time was that China need not play a major role in the world. However, China has already joined the international system and made its contributions now.'

His views were supported by Chu Shulong , deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, who dismissed an ongoing argument over whether China should give up the 'hiding and biding' approach.

'It was a misunderstanding to think of Mr Deng's words as a long-term diplomatic strategy. It was actually a policy aimed at the specific period of time around 1990,' Professor Chu said.

Mainland scholars have remained divided on the issue since last year, with Wu Jianmin , the president of the Foreign Affairs College, leading the opposition to the dropping of Deng's doctrine.

Premier Wen Jiabao 'once said the hiding approach would be upheld for a century and I fully agreed because giving up such an approach, which meant becoming a world leader, would only lead to disasters', Mr Wu, a former ambassador to France, told Xinhua.

However, both professors said the mainland's recent diplomatic moves should not be viewed as a desire to take the offensive in world affairs.

'While China has been more active in the South Pacific, aimed at reducing Taiwan's influence, and enhancing military ties with other countries, the country has been mostly behaving in a reactive way in dealing with all kinds of concerns and fears,' Professor Pang said.

With China still an ascending power, its leaders had been keen to explain its role and the direction of its rapid development to a world unsettled by its growing economic and military power, he said.

Premier Wen's elaboration of China's international responsibilities during a speech in Australia on Monday was 'unprecedented', Professor Pang said, although he mostly repeated positions that were already known.

'It could be seen as an in-depth and systematic response to US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick's call in September on Beijing to become a responsible stakeholder in the international system,' he said.

Fu Mengzi , from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said China's rise and involvement in world affairs would almost certainly involve the country in more disputes. He said the Taiwan issue would remain an important topic during Mr Hu's visit, as it was in Mr Wen's just concluded South Pacific trip and the Asian tours by Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference chairman Jia Qinglin and Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan .