When Hu Jintao, the president of China, went half way round the world in February to see President Omar Bongo of Gabon, he was not merely paying a courtesy visit to the African ruler of a population one-thousandth the size of China's. Mr Hu was after oil.

And a guaranteed supply of oil - in exchange for the honour of his visit and $7m of Chinese financial aid - is exactly what he got. Among other deals, Sinopec, the state-controlled Chinese oil company, signed a contract to buy Gabonese oil from Total, the French oil group.