Rio Tinto eyes joint ventures with China: report

LONDON (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto is looking to establish joint ventures with companies backed by the Chinese government, such as Chinalco, its chief executive was quoted as saying in Britain's Observer newspaper on Sunday.

Chinese aluminum giant Chinalco bought a 9 percent stake in Rio (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) this year -- widely seen as an effort to complicate a takeover bid by the world's biggest mining group, BHP Billiton (BLT.L) (BHP.AX)

Rio Tinto Chief Executive Tom Albanese told the paper he was interested in teaming up to develop new iron ore projects, in which the Chinese would build infrastructure, roads, railways and ports needed to transport the minerals.

"There are opportunities to work with senior Chinese state-owned enterprises, particularly in remote places were we discovered ore, which require infrastructure," he was quoted as saying.

Albanese told Reuters last week Rio's response to BHP's hostile bid had not changed in the light of the global financial crisis.

(Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by Anshuman Daga)