Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday starts to pay an official visit to Uganda, the last leg of his seven-nation African tour on June 17-24.

The following are key facts about the east African country:

The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in east Africa, which borders Kenya in the east, Tanzania and Rwanda in the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the west and Sudan in the north.

A mountainous country, Uganda covers an area of 241,000 sq. km including highlands about 1,200 meters above sea level. Endowed with rich water resources, Uganda owns nearly half of the 67,000-sq-km Lake Victoria, Africa's largest fresh water lake.

Uganda has a population of 24 million. According to linguistic similarities, Ugandans are mainly classified as Bantu, Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic and Sudanic.

English is the official language, and Luganda and Swahili are the major local languages.

In addition, 44.5 percent of the population are Roman Catholics, 39.2 percent Protestants and 10.5 percent Muslims.

Uganda achieved independence from Britain in 1962 and the Republic of Uganda was founded in 1967.

Uganda has abundant natural resources, including fertile soil and sizable mineral deposits.

Agriculture and animal husbandry are the two dominant sectors in the country's national economy, with production accounting for 70 percent of the country's GDP. And 95 percent of the country's exports are from the two sectors.

Coffee is the chief cash crop, followed by cotton, tea, corn, bananas and sugar.

Uganda and China established diplomatic ties on Oct. 18, 1962. Since then, bilateral cooperation in the political, economic and other fields has developed smoothly.

According to statistics released by the Commerce Ministry of China, bilateral trade volume reached 99.37 million U.S. dollars in 2005, up 12.8 percent from the previous year.