Kenya Airways is targeting eight new routes in 2005, two of them flying to Shanghai as part of a strategic shift towards the Far East, the airline's chief executive Titus Naikuni said on Monday.

Kenya Airways hopes to establish routes to Shanghai by June, via existing flights to Bangkok and Dubai, after the Kenyan government struck a bilateral air service deal with China.

"We've been colonized to think there is only business in Europe," Naikuni told business reporters in Nairobi. It (China) has enormous potential. A lot of traders from Africa are going into China," he said.

Kenya Airways also plans routes to Istanbul in Turkey; Bamako, Mali; Livingstone in Zambia; Dakar, Senegal; Freetown, Sierra Leone and Maputo, Mozambique.

"The vision we have as Kenya Airways is to link up the whole of Africa, not just Africa with the outside. That's my dream to see KQ in every African country," Naikuni said.

However, he said expansion into Africa was slow because some governments wanted to safeguard their national carriers from competition.

"Our biggest hurdle, especially in Africa is getting that (bilateral) agreement. There's a lot of protectionism going on," Naikuni said.

He declined to give financial details before annual results are announced in May, but said Kenya Airways, one of Africa's few profitable carriers, performed well in the year to March.

"Our passenger numbers have grown in double-digit numbers and for the first time in history of the company we have achieved two million passengers in the year ending this month," Naikuni said.

The carrier, which wants to modernize its fleet, will take delivery of two new Boeing 777s in April and June, and is considering buying more aircraft, Naikuni said.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which is part of Air France-KLM, owns 26 percent of Kenya Airways.