DAKAR (AFP) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing arrived Thursday in Senegal, the latest west African country to have recently ditched Taiwan in favor of mighty Beijing.

Li is the first high-level Chinese government official to visit Senegal, which switched ties to China on October 25. Beijing had severed diplomatic relations when Dakar recognized Taiwan nine years ago.

Flying in from the west African island nation of Cape Verde, Li was met at Leopold Sedar Senghor international airport by his Senegalese counterpart Cheikh Tidiane Gadio.

The two were due to hold a brief one-on-one meeting before their delegations went into official talks.

A meeting was scheduled later Thursday with Senegalese Prime Minister Macky Sall before a dinner in Li's honour, according to the foreign ministry here.

Before his departure for neighboring Mali on Friday, the Chinese minister will officially open China's new embassy in Dakar.

Beijing, in its bid to counterbalance Western influence among developing nations, has chosen Africa as its first port of call. -----Tug-of-war

Mainland China has in recent years aggressively intensified its diplomatic tug-of-war with the breakaway island of Taiwan.

Although Taiwan is self-governing, Beijing considers the island a renegade province that will one day be reunited with the mainland.

Since the two were separated after China's civil war ended in 1949, Beijing and Taipei have been engaged in a battle to poach allies from each other with generous economic aid packages.

In its first ever African policy document, published Thursday to coincide with Li's tour, Beijing said the "one China" policy remains "the political foundation for the establishment and development" of relations with African countries.

"The Chinese government appreciates the fact that the overwhelming majority of African countries abide by the 'one China' principle, refuse to have official relations and contacts with Taiwan and support China's great cause of reunification," China states in the policy document. China vows to "unswervingly" pursue its relations with Africa and foster new types of strategic partnership.

"China will establish and develop a new type of strategic partnership with Africa which features political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchange," it said.

Li will also pay a courtesy call on Senegal's Army commander before his departure on Friday.

The foreign minister's trip, seen as a bid to bolster China's energy ties and forge stronger global political alliances to counterbalance U.S. dominance, will also take him to Liberia, Nigeria and Libya.

Senegal became the sixth country to defect to China since 2000, following Liberia, Macedonia, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Vanuatu and Grenada.

The number of countries worldwide still maintaining links with Taiwan has dropped to 25, mostly small nations in Africa and the Pacific.

Gambia and Burkina Faso are now Taiwan's sole partners in west Africa.

Liberia switched its ties in 2003, a move that paved the way for China to send its first-ever peacekeepers to join a UN mission. Li is due in Liberia on Monday to attend the inauguration of Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson, Africa's first elected female president. After its swing for Beijing, Senegal said it recognized that "China is the sole government legally representing all of China and that Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory."

The decision "corresponds perfectly to the fundamental interests of our country and the spirit of the new global diplomacy serving our national interests," the Senegalese government said.