Brazil and Argentina are due to announce shortly that each country will admit Chinese visitors holding visas to enter the other, visas to enter European countries or visas to enter the United States, Lusa reports.

The Portuguese news agency says representatives of Brazil and Argentina will make the announcement at the three-day Global Tourism Economy Forum in Macao, which is due to end tomorrow.

The report quotes the head of the Brazilian tourism authority, Gilson Machado Neto, as saying he hopes the arrangement will come into effect this year.

Mr Machado Neto also hopes the opening next month of a tourist centre for Chinese visitors in the Brazilian city of São Paulo will help increase the annual number of Chinese Brazil attracts to 120,000, twice the number it attracted last year, Lusa reports.