Hu and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis attended a signing ceremony for the 4.35-billion-euro (5.5-billion-dollar) deal which will give Cosco control of Piraeus' main container terminal for 35 years.

Both leaders stressed the importance of the deal that sets up Greece as a major entry point for Chinese products into the European Union and the southeastern European continent.

"We intend to deepen our shipping cooperation, and examine the creation of a system for shipping cooperation... using (Greek) ports and the (Piraeus) transit centre... to open up third-party markets for common gain," Hu said.

"Greek ports can operate as transit centres for Chinese products to European Union states but also the broader area of southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean," Karamanlis added.

Under the terms of the concession, Cosco is expected to modernise Piraeus' container terminal and boost its annual capacity from 1.6 to 3.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).

The deal is strongly opposed by the Greek dockers' union which staged a demonstration outside the Greek parliament on Tuesday.

"Cosco Go Home" read a banner held by the demonstrators, who fear the new operators will bring large-scale lay-offs.

They also argue that the influx of cheap Chinese goods will undermine the already shaky Greek family-owned store sector.

"The port workers are opposed to this sellout," the demonstrators said in a statement. "The Piraeus container terminal is already a profitable operation."

Riot police prevented the dockers from approaching the Greek Prime Minister's offices where Karamanlis and Hu, who arrived here Monday on a three-day visit, held bilateral talks before the ceremony.

Greece has spent years wooing China's massive trade industry, touting its position as a strategic partner with easy access to Balkan and European Union markets.

The Cosco deal is also a personal boon for Karamanlis whose administration has been hurt by unpopular reforms and is badly trailing in the polls.

Hong Kong-based global transport operator Hutchison Whampoa is also engaged in talks for the concession at the container terminal of Salonika, Greece's main northern port and a major gateway into the Balkans.

Greek telecommunications firm Ote also signed a deal on Tuesday with Chinese counterpart Huawei while public television networks Ert of Greece and CCTV of China were to seal additional agreements.

Hu earlier Tuesday visited the iconic Acropolis temple, and met with the secretary general of Greece's Communist Party, Aleka Papariga, who is among the opponents of the Cosco deal.

"The Chinese Communist Party is aware of this: here in Greece, we oppose the privatisation of ports, mountains, beaches etc," she told reporters.

The Chinese leader will spend the final day of his visit on Wednesday on the island of Crete, where the Greeks plan to invest around one billion euros on a new container terminal in Tymbaki, on the island's southern Messara Bay.

Political relations between Greece and China grew closer after Athens hosted the 2004 Olympics and transferred part of its experience to the Chinese for last summer's Beijing Games.

Private business deals predate this rapprochement -- Greece's world-leading ship owners set up a foothold in China years ago, placing major orders with the Asian giant's booming shipyards and providing the bulk of the tankers that transport the majority of China's oil imports.

Hu's visit to Greece is the first by a Chinese head of state since his predecessor Jiang Zemin came in 2000.

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