China's Xi touts 'maritime silk road' on South Asia tour

China's President Xi Jinping enlisted the Maldives' backing for a "21st century maritime silk road" on Monday as he began a tour of South Asia in the strategically located Indian Ocean island chain.

The Maldives is best known for its tourist industry but also straddles major international shipping lanes, and Chinese investment there has grown significantly as Beijing seeks to secure vital trade routes.

"(The) Maldives was an important stop of the ancient maritime silk road," Xi wrote in an article published on the local Sun Online news portal late Sunday.

"China welcomes (the) Maldives to get actively involved in building the 21st century maritime silk road by leveraging its own strength."

Xi is in the Maldives at the start of a tour set to focus on China's growing economic influence in South Asia, which has raised alarm bells in regional power India.

From the Maldives he will travel to Sri Lanka where China has invested heavily, building a deep-sea harbour and an international airport in an area that straddles the east-west shipping lane, the world's busiest trade route.

The "maritime silk road" -- touted by Xi during a visit to Indonesia last year -- is intended to revive a trade route running from China through Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean to Europe.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua said the Maldives' President Abdulla Yameen "expressed total agreement" with Xi's proposal, without giving further details.

The two leaders held talks in the capital Male focused on trade and aid after a formal welcome including a 21-gun salute.

Yameen's office said he had reached nine agreements with China, including one on a project to build a bridge connecting the capital with the airport island of Hululle, a distance of about one kilometre (0.6 miles).

It is the first visit by a leader from Beijing since the former British protectorate gained independence in 1965, but will be the second meeting between the two leaders in a matter of weeks, following their talks last month in the Chinese city of Nanjing.

A source close to Yameen's government told AFP ahead of the talks they would steer clear of sensitive security issues as New Delhi considers the islands to be within its sphere of influence.

India has regarded China's growing influence among its neighbours with concern, leading new Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prioritise regional relationships that critics say the previous government neglected.

Chinese have become the largest single group of holidaymakers to visit the Maldives, a nation of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 850 kilometres (530 miles) across the equator.

The Maldives received just over one million tourists last year and more than 30 per cent of them were Chinese. Tourism accounts for more than a quarter of the $2.3 billion economy.

"Known as 'a string of pearls that God left in the human world' and with its simple and warm-hearted people and picturesque scenery, Maldives is a magnet attracting tourists from around the world," said Xi, adding he was eager to experience the islands for himself.

But as well as being renowned for sandy beaches and turquoise waters, there is also some alarm that the Maldives has become a recruiting ground for jihadists.

The one-square mile capital island has seen a pro-jihadist demonstration earlier this month pressing for sharia law.

At least four nationals are said to have been killed while fighting in Syria this year.

Former president Mohamed Nasheed told Britain's Independent on Sunday paper at the weekend that up to 200 Maldivians were fighting for Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria. The entire population of the Maldives is only around 330,000 Sunni Muslims.

"Radical Islam is getting very, very strong in the Maldives," said Nasheed, who lost last November's run-off election to Yameen. "Their strength in the military and in the police is very significant."

Eight Chinese were among a group of foreign tourists injured in a bombing in Male in 2007 carried out by suspected Islamist militants.