Premier Zhu pressed Walt Disney chairman Michael Eisner to make a move on building a theme park in China.
Sources said that during a private meeting, the Premier did not indicate whether Shanghai or Hong Kong was the preferred site.
But a Disney spokesman said a park in each city was not impossible, raising hopes that both Hong Kong and Shanghai could benefit, an option backed by the Shanghai Government and revealed by the Post.
It is understood Mr Zhu and Mr Eisner discussed other possible Chinese-US ventures in the entertainment and video businesses during the brief meeting in Mr Zhu's suite at the Century Plaza Hotel.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said the 30-minute discussion was a 'courtesy call, a meeting between old friends'.
The building of a theme park in China was 'a business question and it will be resolved in a business-like manner', he said.
While talking to the local Chinese community yesterday, Mr Zhu, known as the 'father of China's Disneyland', said he had no preference as to the site of China's first Disney park.