Beijing thaws towards UK with invitation to Cameron David Cameron's spell in the Chinese diplomatic "deep freeze" ended on Friday when the prime minister was invited to visit Beijing by Xi Jinping, China's president. The rapprochement took place at the G20 summit in St Petersburg, drawing a line under a spell of icy relations that followed Mr Cameron's meeting with the Dalai Lama in May 2012. Although no date has been set for the visit, Mr Cameron hopes to visit China within months and is expected to lead one of the biggest ever British trade missions to the world's second-biggest economy. Mr Cameron said he met Mr Xi many years ago and that the Chinese president was making good on an offer made then that he would host a visit to Beijing. "He remarked that when we last met, I was still in opposition," Mr Cameron said. He said he looked forward to welcoming me as prime minister and - now that I am prime minister - he was looking forward to a visit. The UK government was given the cold shoulder by China after Mr Cameron met the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, who is reviled by the Chinese government. Although British diplomats tried to smooth Chinese concerns at the time and consulted with Beijing on how to minimise any potential offence, diplomatic and official contact after the meeting was seriously curtailed. However, British ministers insist that trade relations between Britain and China have not suffered as a result and Mr Cameron will hope to bolster those ties on his visit. His brief meeting with Mr Xi followed a 20-minute meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia, another country with which Britain enjoys frosty diplomatic relations. Mr Cameron admitted Mr Putin was "miles away from what lots of us believe" on who bore responsibility for the chemical weapons attack in Damascus on August 21 - the Russian president believes it was opposition forces. "He says to me that he would like to see further evidence of regime culpability and we will go on providing evidence of regime culpability, as will the Americans and others, but I think it will take a lot to change his mind," Mr Cameron said. Mr Cameron said he tried to manage the diplomatic tensions with Mr Putin and also used the meeting to discuss bilateral trade, including in the oil and gas sector and in nuclear energy. Briefing journalists in St Petersburg, Mr Cameron also returned to the fray over alleged comments by a Russian spokesman - categorically denied by the Kremlin - that Britain was a "small island that no one pays any attention to." In a rambling patriotic spiel, Mr Cameron said: "Britain may be a small island, but I would challenge anyone to find a country with a prouder history, a bigger heart or greater resilience. Britain is an island that helped to abolish slavery, that has invented most of the things worthwhile inventing, including every sport currently played around the world, that still today is responsible for art, literature and music that delights the entire world. I'm thinking of setting this to music.