North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il arrived in Beijing on Wednesday and was seen en route to what was believed to be a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, a South Korean media report said.

Kim's arrival in Beijing marks the climax of a trip during which he has reportedly inspected manufacturing sites in northeastern and eastern China -- a tour believed to be aimed at studying China's economic boom.

The repeated visits to China by the reclusive leader, who rarely leaves his homeland, are widely viewed as a bid by impoverished North Korea for more trade and economic help from Beijing, its sole major ally and benefactor.

Kim's special train, which brought him to China last Friday, pulled into the Chinese capital in the morning and he went straight to a government compound where foreign leaders are hosted, Yonhap news agency said.

Later, Kim's motorcade was seen departing the Diaoyutai state guesthouse and heading for the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing where the summit meeting was believed to be held, the report said.

Security at the guesthouse situated in western Beijing was extra tight, an AFP reporter there said. Japan's Kyodo News later reported that the meeting had concluded and the motorcade returned to the guesthouse after about four hours.

It was not clear what was on the agenda for the two leaders -- Kim's China visits are shrouded in secrecy with details normally divulged by both sides only after his return home.

China's foreign ministry declined immediate comment to AFP.

During Kim's last visit in August, Hu urged his neighbour to launch reforms of North Korea's state-planned economy, which is crippled by severe shortages of food, power and raw materials.

China is isolated North Korea's only major ally and a key economic lifeline for Kim's Stalinist regime.

China also is keen to restart six-nation talks that it hosts on dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear programmes.

The talks, which include the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia and which would offer diplomatic and economic benefits in exchange for scrapping the nuclear programmes, have been stalled for more than two years.

Overseas aid for North Korea is ebbing due to anger over its nuclear programme -- the target of international sanctions -- and frequent provocative behaviour.

Kim also is believed to be seeking Beijing's blessing for an eventual dynastic transfer of power to his son and designated successor, Kim Jong-Un. The younger Kim does not appear to have accompanied his father in China.

Kim arrived in Beijing after a secretive whirlwind tour that took him from North Korea into northeast China and down through the country's eastern regions, reports have said.

During a stay in Jiangsu province's Yangzhou city, Kim browsed shelves stocked with daily necessities such as rice and cooking oil in a store on Monday and visited an economic development zone, Yonhap reported earlier.

He also reportedly dined in Yangzhou with former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, who was born in the city, before visiting the nearby provincial capital of Nanjing.

While Kim was in Nanjing, a US government team arrived in North Korea to assess its requests for food aid.

UN agencies and charities have reported that millions in the economically dysfunctional nation need urgent assistance.