Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay state visits to Russia, Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of Congo on March 22-30.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang made the announcement in Beijing on Monday.

Xi is making the visit at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, South African President Jacob Zuma and President of the Republic of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso.

Xi will also attend the fifth leaders' summit of BRICS countries, to be held from March 26 to 27 in Durban, South Africa.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will move toward setting up a development bank during the summit to speed up the makeover of the world's financial system, a Kremlin envoy said.

Leaders of the BRICS group of the world's biggest developing economies will discuss the size of the bank's starting capital, said Mikhail Margelov, President Vladimir Putin's envoy to Africa. An agreement on the exact amount of resources to be committed isn't likely and Russia favors capping each side's contribution to US$10 billion at first, he said last Friday.

"Better we start with something small and beautiful," said Margelov, who will join Putin at the summit. "Our strategic goal is to transform the aging international financial architecture."

Setting up a development bank is part of a push to win greater influence in international institutions to match the BRICS' rising economic heft.

The group, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the world's population, authorized a study into the feasibility of establishing a multilateral bank for funding projects in the developing world at a summit in New Delhi last year.

The BRIC nations held their first summit in 2009 and invited South Africa to join the group in December 2010.

A framework agreement that BRICS leaders plan to sign in Durban will outline a strategic interest shared by the five countries to invest in infrastructure, energy and telecommunication projects, Margelov said.

South Africa is proposing investing in construction of a rail link to Namibia through Botswana, he added.

Another accord may be signed on cooperation between stock exchanges to unify trading platforms and time standards, Margelov, who also heads the international affairs committee of Russia's upper house of parliament, said.

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