"Africa must not jump blindly from one type of neo-colonialism into Chinese-style neo-colonialism," cautioned Rene N'Guetta Kouassi, the head of the African Union's economic affairs department.

This attitude contrasts sharply with the enthusiasm that prevailed before the 2000 China-Africa summit in Beijing when many African leaders saw Chinese aid, which unlike aid from most other countries, was not conditional on democratic reforms as a way of diversifying their sources of financing.

Among the complaints are that the goods China sends to Africa are of poor quality, that Chinese companies do little in the way of technology transfer to Africa and the trade imbalance, with China importing little other than oil.

A report published in September by the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA) noted that: "Although in relative terms Africa's share of China's total foreign trade is only small (4 per cent), in absolute terms, bilateral trade (...) grew approximately nine fold from 12.3 billion dollars in 2002 to 107 billion dollars in 2008."

"African extractive industries have been the main source of inflow to China from the continent, accounting for 87 percent of total imports in 2007. Some 83 percent of that share is oil. Globally Africa is now China's second-largest oil supplier (26 percent in 2007) after the Middle East," the report said.

Only oil-producing countries are benefitting from China's growing influence.

"West Africa has consistently recorded a trade deficit with China, of around 80 percent," said Benin economist Guillaume Moumouni.

For South African researcher Tsidiso Disenyana, China's huge infrastructure projects on the continent do not benefit local economies directly since "the money is not circulating in the domestic economy."

"China brings its own engineers, and other labours. We do know that we have a chronic shortage of skilled people particularly technicians. But we need to have some clauses that assure that (there is) some sort of technology transfer, training and the likes for local employees," he argued.

China's ambassador to the African Union (AU) says that Beijing has fulfilled most of the clauses it committed to at the Beijing summit, cancelling Africa's debt, doubling direct aid to the continent and granting customs waivers.

"We respect African countries' sovereign right to chose their own mode of development, we never interfere in internal affairs of African countries nor do we attach any political strings to our government assistance," he told AFP.

"Our projects are mainly in agriculture, infrastructure, education, health ... and we are looking at the improvement of African people," he added.

Some experts accuse Africa of being short-sighted.

"For China to go in search of the resources she needs is normal. But in the face of this thirst for raw materials, we see a rather blind enthusiasm, as if people are forgetting that these resources are not inexhaustible," Momouni said.

"As Africans we have to stop dreaming of this benevolent world power that comes here just because they like the look of the place or because we keep saying how poverty-stricken we are," he added.

"Today it's China but tomorrow it will be India or Brazil, who also have their sights set on Africa," he said.

"That's why we at the AU are speeding up the integration process that will enable Africa to speak with one voice," responded Kouassi.

He said the AU is trying "to move towards a situation where African countries stick together and present a united front so that the continent has more weight in negotiations, whoever the partner is".

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