Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah on Wednesday visited the Shaolin Temple, one of the birthplaces of Chinese Kungfu, in central China's Henan Province, enjoying a traditional Chinese martial arts display and sharing a prayer for world peace.

President Kabbah warmly applauded the performers and shared a photo op with an eight-year-old Kungfu practitioner after the show.

In a courtyard of the temple, a monk showed the awe-struck president a 1,200-year-old stele that records an ancient story in which 13 Shaolin Kungfu monks rescued Emperor Li Shimin of China's Tang Dynasty (618-906 A.D) during a war.

The president prayed silently as five monks chanted scriptures.

After receiving several books on traditional Chinese architecture in the Abbot's room, Kabbah wrote in the guest book: "I will bring Shaolin's presents to the Sierra Leonean people, and I hope my prayers here will bring more peace and happiness to my country and the whole world".

President Kabbah arrived in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, on Nov. 7, after closing the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), for a short stay in central China's Hunan Province.

Established about 1,500 years ago, Shaolin Temple is famed for combining martial arts with Zen Buddhism. After Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit this March and the abbot Shi Yongxin's attendance at July's World Cup finale, more state leaders are paying their homage at the temple as a window onto Chinese culture.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)