St Petersburg: In a significant engagement ahead of his proposed visit to China next month, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on May 31 met Chinese President Hu Jintao for discussions on bilateral ties in the first high-level contact between the two sides after the leadership change in Beijing.

The two leaders discussed the upcoming visit of Vajpayee, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in a decade after P V Narasimha Rao went to Beijing in 1993.

Vajpayee was accompanied by his Principal Secretary and National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra and Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal.

The Prime Minister later went to Strelna, to meet his British counterpart Tony Blair.

Vajpayee, Hu, Blair and other world leaders are to participate in the tercentenary celebrations of St. Petersburg.

The Prime Minister had on May 30 night met Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac on board the luxury liner "Silver Whisper" after a dinner hosted by the Russian leader for his guests, to attend the tercentenary celebrations of the city, his hometown.

During the meetings, the situation in the Asian subcontinent, the post-Iraq scenario and the issue of international terrorism were understood to have figured prominently.

The Prime Minister is also understood to have informed the world leaders about his fresh peace initiative with Pakistan.

PTI