The deals are part of a series of agreements while Premier Wen Jiabao visits Malaysia and Indonesia.

Government and company officials from China and Malaysia signed the agreements involving education, banking, power and construction after Wen met Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in the administrative capital.

Malaysian officials gave no value for the deals.

Analysts said the investment pacts signaled China's move to boost ties with Southeast Asian economies it relies on for its supply of commodities such as natural gas and crude palm oil.

"From a political point of view, I think China does favor Malaysia in trade relations largely to Malaysia's natural resources," said Ooi Kee Beng, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

"Indonesia has more to offer than Malaysia but is generally harder to deal with because of its weaker state capacity."

China has been wooing Southeast Asian economies and a China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement came into effect in January last year, forming an economic bloc of 1.9 billion people.

China has also signed free trade agreements with New Zealand, Pakistan, and Singapore while negotiations are ongoing with Australia and South Korea.

The deals signed in Malaysia included a contract between China Huadian Engineering Co. and Malaysia's Janakuasa to build a coal-fired plant and a pact between DiGi and China's ZTE Corp. to supply telecommunications network infrastructure.

Aluminium Corporation of China also agreed to work with Smelter Asia Sdn Bhd to construct a smelter in Malaysia, building on an earlier deal for a $1 billion aluminum smelter in eastern Sarawak state on Borneo island which has yet to get off the ground.

"China appreciates Malaysia's role in enhancing the ties of China with other ASEAN countries," Wen told reporters.

Malaysia's central bank was also given approval to set up a representative office in Beijing.

In 2009, China signed currency swaps with Malaysia and Indonesia in a bid to give the yuan a bigger international role.

China is also a big buyer of Malaysian palm oil although its imports of the vegetable oil last year fell 12.5 percent to 3.4 million tons.

"We also touched on ways to increase investment and identified certain important infrastructure projects that Chinese investors can get into," Najib said.

Malaysia has been China's largest trading partner among ASEAN countries for three straight years, and China has been Malaysia's top trading partner globally for two years.