MOSCOW (Reuters) - The presidents of Russia and China are to sign a new pact on Monday establishing the principles of a partnership to defend mutual interests and boost trade between the giant neighbors.Russia's Vladimir Putin hosts China's Jiang Zemin, who arrived on Sunday, days before flying to Italy for the G8 summit of industrialized nations and a meeting with President Bush soured by U.S. missile defense tests.
China and Russia -- both with problems with the United States -- say they are not planning any kind of military or political bloc and that their friendship treaty, intended to replace a 1949 Communist-era pact, does not threaten anyone.
But Russian officials have made clear Moscow sees the treaty as part of a ``multi-polar world'' to offset the influence of the United States as the only post-Cold World superpower. Russia and China resent what they see as the arrogant and unilateral exercise of U.S. authority.
Relations between Beijing and Washington were overshadowed by the forced landing in April of a U.S. spy plane on the Chinese island of Hainan.
Russia's ties with Bush's administration got off to a bumpy start, mainly over Washington's plan to install an anti-missile shield against ``rogue states.'' Moscow and Beijing both oppose the U.S. plan.
Matters have improved as Washington has agreed to discuss the scheme.
But a U.S. missile defense test in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday rang alarm bells in Moscow, where the Foreign Ministry denounced it as a threat to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
Russian officials have said Putin would discuss with Jiang U.S. missile defense plans before taking them up with Bush in Genoa.
U.S. ``UNSEEN PARTICIPANT'' AT TALKS
``The United States will be the unseen participant in the talks in Moscow,'' Russian daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta said on Saturday.
On the bilateral side, the new pact is expected to make relations between Russia and China more stable and secure them from twists and turns of the past 40 years.
``We will be signing such a document for the first time, dealing with all sectors of cooperation and setting down both sides' desire to maintain good ties over generations,'' Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said ahead of the visit.
After the alliance between Moscow and Beijing broke up in the mid-1960s, the two turned into bitter rivals for supremacy in the Communist world. There were border clashes in two decades of hostility before ties started improving in the late 1980s.
Russia and China have since sorted out their border problems and now aim at boosting bilateral trade, which is expected to rise this year to 10 billion from last year's 8 billion -- still far short of Beijing's annual trade with Japan or the United States.
Some analysts say the treaty was pushed by both sides as a defensive measure as it bonds two countries that in many respects are potential adversaries.
Russia fears the weight of China's population bearing down on its far east. China sees a revitalized Russia as a possible rival for influence in Asia.
Jiang's four-day visit to Russia is part of his 10-day tour which also includes Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Malta. Jiang hosted Putin in Shanghai last month and the two plan to meet again at a regional summit later this year.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin, has arrived in Moscow at the start of an official four-day visit to sign a treaty on friendship and co-operation. Mr Jiang said the document, which will establish the principles of a partnership to defend their interests and boost trade, would lay a lasting foundation for future Chinese relations with R