By Trevor Marshallsea of AAP

BEIJING, Aug 25 AAP - On a visit to Beijing two years ago, Alexander Downer, opposition leader at the time, uttered what on reflection proves to be a fairly unfortunate precis of what the Chinese leaders he met had thought of him.

"They see me as the next Prime Minister, therefore it's important that they have a constructive relationship with me from an early stage," he said.

Mr Downer was back here last week, obviously not as PM, but seeking to construct a relationship on his first visit to Australia's heavyweight northern neighbour as Foreign Affairs Minister.

If signs of any lost credibility in the eyes of the Chinese leaders over his 1994 quote had emerged here, he certainly wasn't letting on.

Ostensibly, the visit, which followed a recent rocky time in Sino-Australian relations, went fairly smoothly, with warm sentiments conveyed from Premier Li Peng and Foreign Affairs Minister Qian Qichen via the official media, which gave prominent coverage to the trip.

From Mr Downer's comments to the media, there appeared to be no signs that China had managed to raise the crossbar for the type of observance of its political sensitivities, such as Tibet and Taiwan, for the new government to aim for, a ploy some analysts believed Beijing was trying on with its recent tough talk towards Canberra.

Ministers Downer and Qian agreed to work towards upgraded regional security dialogue, including annual official talks, Mr Downer said.

This, he said, was a way of showing that although Australia recently upgraded defence ties with the US, it was ready for dialogue in this area with other countries and was opposed to any policy of containment against China.

Another plus was the signing of an accord safeguarding the operations of Australia's Consulate-General in Hong Kong after the territory is handed back to China next year.

Mr Downer pointed out that overall, the Sino-Australian relationship was a strong and multi-faceted one, with bilateral trade and investment continuing to rise.

There are still sticking points however, on which China and Australia are still agreeing to disagree, and which will take time to die down. The most notable are Tibet and Taiwan.

Mr Downer's visit came just a few weeks before he is to meet Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama during his trip to Australia, one of his many overseas trips which Beijing insists are designed to push the cause of Tibetan independence from China.

The foreign affairs minister received a warning from Mr Li that China did not want Australian ministers to meet the Dalai Lama. The warning was cloaked in a reference by Mr Li to severely strained ties in July between China and Germany over a German parliamentary resolution accusing China of human rights abuses in Tibet, and by a visit to the country by the revered buddhist leader.

Mr Downer later told journalists China had to understand that the "mutual respect" both sides demand in the relationship meant in part that China had to understand Australia had different views to it on meetings between ministers and the Dalai Lama.

It's a point he hopes they'll also understand if Prime Minister John Howard meets the religious leader, as now appears certain.

It was one of the types of differences between the two countries, he said, for which Australians would stand up.

Mr Downer said he and Mr Qian had also stood firm on the sticky subject of Primary Industries Minister John Anderson's visit next month to Taiwan, which China views as a rebel province.

While China is continually put on alert by ministerial visits to Taiwan, Mr Downer stressed visits by Australian ministers were strictly business oriented, thus complying with a "one-China" policy.

"The points of disagreement (with China) are borne out of (the) different types of political systems that we have," he said.

"We must as Australians stand up for our national interest and Australians expect me as foreign minister to do that, and I do do that.

"This is a question of mutual respect. It's a question of them understanding that we too have a different type of political system. We have our traditions, we have our values, and they mean a great deal to us. They're a part of what our society is all about."

On the whole, it appeared his first visit, for what Chinese regard as all-important face-to-face contact, went smoothly, with Mr Downer apparently successful in assuring Beijing it would not have to deal with a vastly different government to the former Labor administration under which the relationship prospered.

"This is a multi-dimensional relationship. It's a very broad relationship.

We don't agree with each other on everything. But we have a very strong relationship with China," he said.