Shear delight? China's Hu visits Aussie sheep farm

By James Grubel

GUNDAROO, Australia (Reuters) - A sheepdog named Lou enthralled Chinese leader Hu Jintao on Wednesday during a visit to an Australian sheep farm.

Wearing a long black coat and surrounded by about 40 Chinese officials, Hu watched Lou and equally energetic sheepdogs Zac and Dot round up about 100 sheep and drive them into their pen on a farm outside the Australian capital, Canberra.

As the dogs worked, guided by the whistles of farmer Ian Cusack, the sheep kicked up dust from the drought-parched ground which had a thin lawyer of green from recent winter rain.

Cusack, wearing an Australian bush jacket and hat, presented Hu with a dark blue scarf made from merino wool as a memento of the visit, and said Hu was charming company and easy to talk to.

"He was very much listening to what I was describing," Cusack said of the normally reserved Chinese leader. "I must say it was very comfortable. He's very charming and personable."

Hu is in Australia for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit in Sydney, where he will hold talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Trade, climate change and regional security are top items on the APEC agenda, but trade was probably uppermost in the mind of the leader of the world's most populous nation during his visit to Bywong Station at Gundaroo, north of Canberra.

Bywong produces about 1,200 kg of wool a year, much of which finds its way to China.

Australia is the world's biggest wool exporter and China is its biggest customer, buying about A$1.5 billion ($1.3 billion) worth -- or more than 60 percent of its total clip -- each year.

To underscore the link, Hu also visited Bywong's woolshed, where shearer Graeme Clugston clipped an Australian merino.

The president showed a genuine interest, asking questions and feeling the clipped wool as it was sorted and taken to be pressed into a bale.

Bywong Station has about 2,700 sheep on its 4,300 acres , but is suffering the affects of the worst drought in a century, which has cut the flock to about two-thirds of its normal size, Cusack told Reuters.

"The drought has had a huge impact on the stock we have been able to carry," he said.

Hu seemed relaxed during his visit, joining Cusack and his wife, Sarah, and their children for a country morning tea with scones and Australia's traditional lamington cakes, squares of sponge cake, covered in chocolate and dipped in coconut.

Altogether, Hu spent more than an hour at Bywong Station, chatting to the family about farm life and posing for photographs amid low-key security.