New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) Rahul Gandhi may visit China soon. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has extended an invitation to the young Gandhi, to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1988 visit of then prime minister and his father Rajiv Gandhi to China.

Rahul Gandhi is likely to accept the invitation, Congress sources said.

Li Jinjun, vice minister of the international department of the CPC central committee, extended the invitation to Gandhi at a meeting with Congress leaders here.

Li is in India to attend conferences of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

Li met a Congress delegation led by party secretary M. Veerappa Moily. Others in the team included Devendra Dwivedi, Manish Tiwari and M.K. Rasgotra.

According to Congress sources, the CPC leaders have always been keen on “better coordination” with India’s oldest political party.

“The Chinese leadership also has a special respect for the Nehru-Gandhi family,” a leader pointed out.

The CPC is believed to have proposed a memorandum of understanding with the Congress to form an institutional mechanism of collaboration between the two parties.

Rahul accompanied his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi when she went to Beijing in October. The Congress chief visited the country at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Rajiv Gandhi paid an official visit to China in December 1988 - the first by an Indian prime minister in 34 years.