Nepali prime minister's upcoming visit appeared to seek backing from China as massive protests from the opposition rock the Himalayan country, Chinese experts said yesterday.

Madhav Kumar Nepal's first China visit begins on Saturday, after a wave of protests staged by the main opposition Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has paralyzed the operation of the country's parliament.

"It looks like a help-seeking tour since the country is chaotic," Zhou Hongjiang, an expert at Beijing-based Peking University, told China Daily yesterday.