Vice president of China
plans Hawaii layover

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, who is seen as the successor to Jiang Zemin as Chinese Communist Party chief later this year and as president in 2003, will stop here Saturday on the first leg of a U.S. visit.

Hu will visit Pearl Harbor Saturday and then fly to New York on Sunday.

Hu will meet with U.S. congressional leaders on Tuesday and meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell over dinner later that day.

On May 1, Hu will meet separately with Vice President Dick Cheney and President Bush, and make a speech on U.S.-China relations at a private-sector dinner meeting.

Hu is expected to press for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian territory when he meets Bush.

A Hu spokeswoman yesterday said Israel should also lift all travel restrictions on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a prisoner in his Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank.

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Star-Bulletin news services contributed to this report.