'Sino-Israeli relations have made delightful progress in the past 15 years, and we expect a promising future,' Mr Olmert told Xinhua.

He will meet President Hu Jintao to discuss a wide range of issues, most notably the Middle East situation.

'We believe that the discussion will be conducive to the peace process in the Middle East, and China will continue to play a constructive role in resolving the Middle East issue,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

Beijing last month hosted an Israeli-Palestinian seminar on the Middle East peace process - the first of its kind in China. The participants said China should join the Quartet on the Middle East, which consists of the UN, European Union, the United States and Russia.

'China has the economic power and the potential to play a bigger role, being more neutral than the US and some European countries,' said Aron Shai, chair professor of East Asian Affairs at Tel Aviv University.

Most experts do not expect breakthroughs during this visit, but said the meeting between the two leaders would enhance co-operation in various areas.

'The shared interests between Israel and China - both in terms of stability and economic co-operation - will continue to drive improved relations,' said Gerald Steinberg, a professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv and a consultant to the Israeli government. 'Both countries are pragmatic in their approach to the world.'

Bilateral trade reached US$3 billion in 2005 and Mr Olmert is confident that a target of US$5 billion will be met this year.

Israel, one of the biggest hi-tech exporters in the world, is teaming up with China in civilian technology areas such as computer software, consumer electronics, satellites, agriculture, irrigation, desert research and solar energy.

But Professor Shai said Sino-Israeli trade relations could have been more extensive.

Israel had been forced to cancel arms deals with China, including the sale of fighter jets in 2000 and unmanned aircrafts in 2005, under US pressure.

Military technology transfers between the two became impossible after the incidents, and stricter rules imposed by the US on the transfer of dual-use technology have further limited trade.

'The US is very sensitive about Taiwan. Any weapon that China can use against Taiwan, no matter where it comes from, the US will oppose,' said Jonathan Goldstein, a professor of East Asian history at the University of West Georgia.

'There is bitterness and enormous economic losses on both sides ... [but] both understand these deals collapsed because of a third party.'

Professor Shai said Israel would also like to see a more adamant attitude from China towards Iran and some Middle East groups. For example, China's invitation to hardline Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas to attend the second Sino-Arab co-operation forum in Beijing in May last year drew criticism from Israel as being obstructive to peace in the Middle East.

Mr Olmert has a personal history closely associated with China. His grandfather fled to Harbin , Heilongjiang, in 1917, while escaping from the Russian revolution and lived there for the rest of his life.

Both his parents grew up in northern China and only immigrated to Israel in the 1930s.

'Chinese culture is part of our family tradition and forms part of my earliest childhood memory in Israel,' Mr Olmert said. 'So China is not another country for me.'