Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Dinesh Gunawardena arrived in China on Monday for a visit during which he would meet President Xi Jinping and is expected to discuss restructuring Colombo's vast debts to its biggest overseas creditor.

According to official statements by both countries, after meeting Xi, Gunawardena would attend the Boao Forum, a high-profile international meeting on the island province of Hainan, before his departure on Saturday.  

Chinese officials greeted Gunawardena with a bouquet and a red-carpet welcome at an airport on the outskirts of Beijing before a motorcade whisked him into the capital, footage by state broadcaster CCTV showed.

China's foreign ministry on Friday said that Xi and Gunawardena would conduct "an in-depth exchange of views on continuing the China-Sri Lanka traditional friendship".

Meanwhile, last year, Sri Lanka secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), conditional on a debt deal that satisfies the island nation's foreign creditors.

The IMF said last week it had reached a staff-level agreement with Colombo to clear the way for the release of $337 million, the third instalment of the four-year bailout.