Vice Premier Li Keqiang met with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in London to sign commercial deals worth at least £2.6 billion ($4 billion) — but the business dealings were overshadowed by the panda deal.

Li oversaw an agreement to bring a breeding pair of pandas to Edinburgh Zoo on a 10-year loan. Seven-year-old male Yangguang and female Tian Tian — which translate as “Sunshine” and “Sweetie” — are expected to arrive in the coming year from China's Wulong Panda Research Institute.

“Pandas are a Chinese national treasure,” said Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to Britain. “This historical agreement will represent an important symbol of our friendship and will bring our two peoples closer together.” Li, who is widely expected to succeed Wen Jiabao as China's next premier, is rounding up a European tour marked by a flurry of trade agreements and promises of Chinese financial support to bolster Spain's economy.

Li, accompanied by a 150-strong delegation, is the first Chinese leader to visit Britain since Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition government took power in May. Cameron himself visited Beijing in November, leading the largest official British delegation to China in modern history to focus on business ties.

The agreements signed Monday included a commitment by Jaguar Land Rover to increase sales to China to some 40,000 vehicles in 2011, with a value of over £1 billion ($1.6 billion).

BP and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation also signed an agreement on deepwater exploration in the South China Sea, Clegg's office said. INEOS, the operator of Scotland's largest mainland oil refinery, said it agreed to form a partnership with the Chinese company for trading and refining joint ventures in Britain and France.

Li's four-day trip to the UK follows visits to Germany and financially troubled Spain. He pledged to make China's markets more open to foreign investment while in Germany, and in Spain he signed trade deals and promised to support the Spanish economy by continuing to buy the country's public debt. He was in Scotland on Sunday to seal a renewable energy deal.

Li is meeting with Treasury chief George Osborne later Monday before attending a banquet with financial services executives.

Analysts say Li's European tour has so far been successful for both Beijing and his hosts, gaining publicity points for China as well as enabling European leaders to better know a potential future premier. They will be watching closely to see how Li handles sticky foreign affairs such as currency controls and human rights in China.

“His reputation is a bold economic reformer,” said Kerry Brown, a China analyst at the London-based think tank Chatham House. “(But) it doesn't seem likely that Li has got a clear reformist agenda” when it comes to improving democracy and political transparency, he said.