BEIJING China and Italy are to sign a deal on illegal immigration and organized crime, Italian Prime Minister Guiliano Amato announced Tuesday after meeting Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Amato told a press conference the agreement foresaw wide cooperation between the Italian and Chinese police forces and was the first of its kind between Beijing and a Western nation.

Under the terms of the deal, which will be signed in the coming days, Chinese police will be shown Italian methods of fighting the Mafia, which has its Chinese equivalent in the triads.

The two police forces will also work together to stem the flow of illegal Chinese immigrants into Italy, AFP reported.

Italian officers last July busted an underground people smuggling network set up by the Italian Mafia and organized crime syndicates in the Balkans thought to have helped 5,000 Chinese into the country around the end of 1999 and the beginning of the year 2000.

Amato, who arrived on Monday in beijing on a three-day official visit, has been received by his Chinese counterpart Zhu Rongji, and then Jiang.

He declared he had "very good" meetings with the two men, according to comments relayed to the Italian press, adding he offered the Chinese leaders Italian help to improve relations with the Vatican.

Formal ties between the two were cut in the 1950s and Amato acknowledged the Chinese communist leadership maintained a "tough" attitude toward the Vatican.

Beijing has demanded the Roman Catholic Church break all ties with Taiwan and stop "interference" in Chinese internal affairs "under the pretext of religion."

Amato was due to leave Beijing on Tuesday for Shanghai where he will stay for 24 hours before leaving China.