By Geraldine Carroll BBC East Asia Today, Washington

China's President Jiang Zemin will make perhaps his last stand in US-China relations in the heart of cowboy country - at President George W Bush's ranch in Texas.

Will Mr Jiang don a cowboy hat like his predecessor?

With China's party congress looming, Mr Jiang will hope to give a memorable performance at Friday's meeting.

But he faces stiff competition from history - and the mark made by his predecessor, Deng Xiaoping, who attended a rodeo in the lone star state 23 years ago.

James Schlesinger, a veteran of several administrations, was President Jimmy Carter's energy secretary. He escorted then-Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping on an eye-opening tour of Texas.

President Jiang is not immune to playing to the cameras

David Lampton, China expert

"There was a reception-picnic-barbeque Texas style for him. He donned a 10 gallon hat.

"Deng Xiaoping was only about five foot four inches and he almost disappeared in the hat.

"But with his charm and waving the hat around, he managed to captivate the Texas crowd.

"I was standing next to one of the Texas oilmen and as the cheers ran through this crowd for Deng Xiaoping, I commented to him: 'Here we are in the heart of Texas with a group of people who are vehemently anti-Communist, strongly conservative and what happens?

"They have fallen in love with the Communist dictator of a billion people.'"

Jiang in jeans?

While Mr Deng's tour was a coming-out party, Mr Jiang will probably be saying goodbye, with many analysts tipping him to hand over the party leadership at the congress next month.

Early indications are that Jiang will be paired in photo opportunities with the elder President George Bush, suggesting he is best matched with an older generation of leaders.

Jiang will not want to be in Deng Xiaoping's shadow

George W Bush will say a more private adios over a Texas-style barbeque at his dusty ranch in Crawford.

But China expert, David Lampton, of Johns Hopkins University, predicts President Jiang will serve up a few surprises of his own.

"President Jiang is not immune to playing to the cameras and I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up in cowboy boots and jeans," he said.

"He may or may not wear a Stetson but I imagine there is going to be some photograph that will strike people as maybe a bit quirky."

US looking ahead

Some US analysts say Mr Jiang's hopes of maintaining an elder statesman's role to promote China-US policy is unlikely to be encouraged by the Bush administration.

John Tkacik, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, says the visit by Mr Jiang's presumed successor Hu Jintao to the White House in May, set the tone for future relations.

"During those meetings Hu Jintao gave every indication that he was a very bright guy. And one of the things that happened is that he seemed to be very well briefed on the Iraq issue back in May," he said.

"This gave the Bush administration - not just President Bush and Vice President Cheney, but Secretary Rumsfeld and Secretary Powell - the sense that Hu Jintao is a mature, thoughtful leader and he is somebody the US can have a dialogue with without worries that there is a lot of baggage that goes on that colours his views.

"I'm not sure that the present administration really would be eager to have Jiang Zemin stay on despite Jiang Zemin's stated message that he wants to promote China-US relations."

So this summit will have one side, the United States looking to the future of its relations with China, and the other looking to the past, as Mr Jiang savours perhaps his final moments in the limelight.