Wen's visit, which is considered very important by political analysts keeping in view developments in the Middle East, will further boost relations between Saudi Arabia and China on the one hand and China and the Gulf bloc on the other.

"Wen, who will visit three Gulf states, namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates during this trip, will travel to the Eastern Province, a region with substantial Chinese interests," said Li Lianghua, a spokesman of the Chinese Embassy, in Riyadh on Tuesday. He said the Chinese premier would stay for three days in the Kingdom and hold wide-ranging talks with senior Saudi officials on a range of issues.

The visit of the Chinese premier coincides with the proposed signing of a deal between two giant Saudi and Chinese petrochemical companies. State oil giant Saudi Aramco will sign a final deal next week to build a new 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil refinery in Yanbu with China's Sinopec Group, the company said in a statement on Sunday. Aramco said the formal signing would take place on Jan. 14 in Dhahran, the site of the state company’s headquarters.

Under the initial agreement, Aramco will hold a 62.5 percent stake in the joint venture formed to develop the project–now rebranded as Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. (YASREF) while Sinopec will own the rest. For Sinopec, the venture would be the first refining project the Chinese state-run oil major, parent of top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp., builds outside China, putting it in a race against rival PetroChina which has snatched a string of refinery deals beyond Chinese borders.

Referring to the itinerary of Chinese premier in the Kingdom, Qatar and the UAE, a statement releases by the Chinese foreign ministry said Wen will attend a conference in Abu Dhabi and make a speech about China’s energy policy. The Chinese premier will hold talks with leaders of the three nations during his six-day visit and “promote the development of China-Arab relations and relations with the Islamic world,” said the statement.

During the six-day visit, Wen will meet and hold talks with leaders of the three Arab nations and exchange views on the development of bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern, said the statement. Saudi Arabia is already China's top international source of crude oil. In the first 11 months of 2011, it supplied China with 45.5 million tons of crude, a rise of 12.9 percent over the same period in 2010. Angola and Iran were the second and third biggest suppliers.