CANADA'S prime minister heads to China tomorrow in a bid to pry open more of the Chinese market for Canadian resources after Washington snubbed Canadian oil, in a visit that will also bring pandas to Canada.

But while Beijing eagerly awaits Prime Minister Stephen Harper's arrival, experts downplayed expectations and activists blasted ongoing human rights abuses in China.

"China attaches great importance to this visit," China's ambassador to Ottawa, Zhang Junsai, said after Harper accepted an invitation to China to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and others.

Harper "made very clear that deepening our bilateral economic ties is high on his agenda. This (view) is totally shared by the Chinese side".

It will be Harper's second official visit to China and he will be accompanied by his wife Laureen, several ministers and MPs and 40 business executives hoping to "deepen economic ties", his spokesman Andrew MacDougall said.

"Canada needs to be more engaged in the Asia-Pacific region," he said, adding that the trip's aim to diversify Canada's markets is largely "in response to decisions taken in the United States".

MacDougall reminded that most of Canada's exports and virtually all of its energy exports go to the United States, and that Ottawa was disappointed over Washington's rejection last month of a proposed pipeline to carry oil from the Alberta tar sands to the US Gulf Coast.

The Keystone XL pipeline was viewed as crucial to Canada's economic prosperity, by opening up new avenues to sell oil from its landlocked oil sands to the United States and abroad.

Hearings are now underway in westernmost Canada to consider an alternate crude oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific Coast for eventual shipping to Asia.AFP