Chinese President Xi Jinping sought Friday to bat away concerns about his ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, saying his global infrastructure project will have "zero tolerance" for corruption while vowing to prevent debt risks.

Xi made his remarks at a summit on his signature foreign policy, which aims to reinvent the ancient Silk Road to connect Asia to Europe and Africa through massive investments in maritime, road and rail projects.

The initiative offers to bring much-needed modern infrastructure to developing countries, but critics say it mainly favours Chinese companies while saddling nations with debt and causing environmental damage.

The opacity of deals between Chinese companies and local governments has also raised alarm.

"Everything should be done in a transparent way and we should have zero tolerance for corruption," Xi said at the gathering of 37 world leaders.

China has also rejected accusations that Belt and Road is a "debt trap" and a geopolitical tool for Beijing's ambitions of becoming a global superpower.

"The Belt and Road is not an exclusive club," Xi said.

In a nod to the concerns over loans, he added: "We also need to ensure the commercial and fiscal sustainability of all projects so that they will achieve the intended goals as planned."

His comments came a day after Finance Minister Liu Kun said China would present the forum a debt sustainability framework to "prevent debt risks" -- a move welcomed by International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who said his country was an "enthusiastic" supporter of Belt and Road, called for the creation of an office for anti-corruption cooperation.

The two countries are building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion-dollar project linking the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang to the Arabian sea port of Gwadar.

Amid warnings that some of the massive projects are causing environmental damage in Asia, Xi said China will also promote "green" development.

A study recently found that Belt and Road could accelerate the spread of invasive species in many countries.

- Debt troubles -

Leaders from 37 countries are in Beijing for the three-day forum, with officials from scores of other nations in attendance.

Khan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, whose country became the first G7 member to sign up to Belt and Road, are among the headliners.

EU powers Germany and France have sent ministers to the summit.

Putin called for a global response against protectionism, unilateral sanctions and "trade wars" -- veiled criticisms of the United States.

The United States, which sent a senior White House official to the first BRI summit in 2017, has not dispatched any officials.

Washington, which involved in trade and other diplomatic spats with China, has dismissed BRI as a "vanity project" and rebuked Rome for signing up to the scheme.

With US negotiators heading to China for a new round of trade talks next week, Xi repeated a pledge to increase imports and vowed to abolish "unjustified" subsidies to Chinese firms -- both key US demands.

Since Xi launched Belt and Road in 2013, China has invested $90 billion in projects while banks have provided upwards of $300 billion in loans, according to Chinese officials.

But examples of debt trouble abound.

Sri Lanka turned over a deep-sea port to China for 99 years after it was unable to repay loans. Pakistan needs an international bailout.

And Montenegro has had to make difficult choices after taking on crushing Chinese debt to pay a Chinese company to build a new highway.

Pushing back has proved a successful election issue in Asia, including in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Malaysia, as the trademark infrastructure drive is used to whip up fears about eroding sovereignty.

After his electoral victory last May, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad cancelled some planned works and renegotiated a rail project cutting 30 percent off the price tag.

But Mahathir said at the summit that "the Belt and Road idea is great" and he "fully" supports it.

China's Belt and Road: Ports, trains and infrastructure
Beijing (AFP) April 26, 2019 - China is trying to woo more nations to join a massive network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks that links dozens of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.

President Xi Jinping touted the benefits of his signature foreign policy, the Belt and Road Initiative, as he welcomed 37 world leaders at a summit dedicate to it on Friday.

Since Xi launched Belt and Road in 2013, China has invested $90 billion in projects while banks have provided upwards of $300 billion in loans.

While participants welcome the chance to improve their countries' infrastructure, experts warn that Belt and Road can saddle nations with new debt and cause environmental harm.

- Which countries have signed on? -

China's foreign minister said last week that 126 countries and 29 international organisations have signed cooperation agreements with Beijing on the Belt and Road.

However, many of those agreements do not amount to full-throated support of the project but rather propose limited cooperation in third-party countries or investment and business cooperation.

Italy became last month the first G7 country to sign up, despite US criticism and suspicion about it among other European Union powers.

- Trains -

The China Railway Express to Europe links 62 Chinese cities with 51 European cities in 15 different countries -- freight trains have made 14,691 trips since the route opened in 2011.

The total value of cargo sent back and forth hit $33 billion in 2018, with 94 percent of trains starting in China fully loaded but only 71 percent of those making the return journey full of cargo.

Construction of a 414-kilometre (257-mile) rail line between China and Laos is well underway with investment already hitting 13.13 billion yuan ($1.95 billion) and 12 tunnels already blasted through.

Another rail project in Thailand will link with the Laos line connecting the Chinese border to Thailand's ports. It will transform southwestern Yunnan province into a trading hub that exports China's goods to Southeast Asian markets.

In Africa, a Belt and Road railway has connected Nairobi and Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast, linking the Kenyan capital with its largest port.

- Roads and ports -

In Pakistan, a controversial trade route was inaugurated to link its southwestern Gwadar port, on the Arabian Sea, with Kashgar, a city in China's northwestern Xinjiang province.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor includes a 392-kilometre highway from Peshawar to Karachi scheduled to be completed this year, a new highway, airport and hospital at Gwadar port, among many other projects in the country.

The port will provide China with safer and more direct access to the oil-rich Middle East than the waterway trade route it currently uses through the narrow Malacca Straits.

"Our critical infrastructure gaps are being plugged. Gwadar, once a small fishing village, is transforming rapidly into a commercial hub," Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told the summit.

The economic corridor has alarmed India because it cuts through Gilgit and Baltistan in Pakistan-administered Kashmir -- disputed territory that New Delhi claims is illegally occupied.

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