By Fiona Fleck

BONN, July 14 (Reuter) - Chinese President Jiang Zemin heads for Munich on Friday after a visit to Bonn during which his country and Germany cemented good relations with lucrative business deals and vowed to develop even closer ties. Jiang is accompanied by China's Foreign Minister Qian Qichen who put the total value of deals signed at $3.1 billion, or more than four billion marks, while German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel spoke of more than two billion marks ($1.4 billion). Officials were unable to explain the discrepancy.

Continuing his tour of Germany's industrial giants, Jiang will visit Siemens, which already has a deal with China on Friday. On Saturday he will go to Volkswagen, which has a joint venture in China. Jiang has met German President Roman Herzog and Chancellor Helmut Kohl during his visit to Germany, China's biggest trading partner in Europe. The five-day tour has been characterised by effusive mutual compliments and great efforts on both sides to play down any differences over human rights.

It has been markedly devoid of the discord which overshadowed Premier Li Peng's visit last year. Li broke off two engagements after being heckled by human rights demonstrators. Kohl told his guests he was determined to "lift the parnership with China on to a new plane" -- an intention already expressed during the German leader's own visit to China in 1993. He said he intended to visit China again this autumn. Herzog also accepted an invitation from Jiang, who told him Germany was "China's most important cooperation partner in Europe." Jiang said German-Chinese relations had huge potential as long as the two countries maintained a mutual respect for their differing cultures and traditions. "There are no basic conflicts of interest between us and our common interests outweigh any differences," Jiang told government officials at a dinner on Thursday evening.

Alluding to the sensitive issue of Western criticism of human rights in China, he said: "We have a glittering future for friendly cooperation...as long as both sides...seek common interests, set aside differences and maintain mutual non-interference in domestic affairs." About 100 Tibetans gathered near the chancellery to accuse China of abusing human rights. Amnesty International called on Kohl to urge the Chinese president to put an end to humans rights abuses in China. German leaders said they had raised the issue but it was not the focal point of the visit.