Powerful friends

As Hu Jintao makes the first visit of a Chinese president to India in a decade, newspapers in both countries consider the possibilities for this historic visit.

Indian papers make much of border disputes between the two sides, while Chinese commentators prefer to concentrate on positive aspects of their relationship.

The visit comes in the wake of comments by the Chinese ambassador that the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China.

India's Hindi Navbharat Times says that Chinese President Hu Jintao arrives "in the midst of misgivings about border and defence issues".

It goes on to say India's external affairs minister "does not expect the clouds overshadowing the relationship to disappear during this visit".

The atmosphere has become slightly disturbing after the Chinese ambassador's claim Rashtriya Sahara

The Indian Express says New Delhi is "unwilling to put the boundary issue on the backburner despite China's cold response in the run up to the visit".

"India will look to get a sense and even try to close the gap at the highest political level when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Chinese President Hu Jintao."

The paper believes that New Delhi "would not want the boundary issue to lose focus while other areas of the bilateral relationship grow".

'Disturbing'

Echoing the theme, the Hindi Rashtriya Sahara says "the atmosphere has become slightly disturbing lately, after the Chinese ambassador's claim on Arunachal Pradesh".

Chinese newspapers also tackle the border issue, but put a more positive spin on it.

Beijing's China Daily quotes columnist and former associate editor of The Hindu, K.K. Katyal, as saying Indians hope that "this border issue will be sorted out sooner rather than later."

The general state of relations between both countries cannot be affected by the border issue Wen Wei Po

"We have border problems with the Chinese, but we've kept them aside and been moving ahead in many other fields and achieved progress," the paper quotes the columnist as saying.

Indian academic Swaran Singh told China Daily that although the two sides could not ignore the dispute, "China and India have so far managed to involve their relations in such a way that our bilateral historical problems are not allowed to disturb our relationship".

The Hong Kong Beijing-backed daily Wen Wei Po argues that the border issue "is only one aspect of Sino-Indian relations".

'Two great nations'

"As two great developing nations, Sino-Indian relations are multi-level, extensive and the general state of relations between both countries cannot be affected by the border issue."

The Hong Kong paper believes Mr Hu's visit "will push Sino-Indian relations to a new stage".

Shanghai's Dongfang Zaobao believes that a new strategic relationship can emerge linking China, India and Pakistan.

"In the past few years, China has been successful in developing bilateral relations with New Delhi and with Islamabad.

"As long as Beijing, New Delhi and Islamabad agree to establish a tripartite trade corridor, the natural advantages of South Asia and western China will be fully complementary," concludes Dongfang Zaobao.

Beijing views itself as a dominant power and would like that kind of acknowledgement from here The Indian Express

An editorial in Rashtriya Sahara welcomes as "of particular significance" Beijing's acceptance of India's proposed deal with Washington by which it would receive technical aid for its civilian nuclear programme.

"Time has provided this rare opportunity to the leaders of the two big Asian countries. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Hu Jintao should seize this opportunity."

According to The Indian Express, China is "emerging as a key player on global issues like Iran and North Korea".

"Beijing views itself as a dominant power when it comes to negotiating with India and would like that kind of acknowledgement from here."

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.