By Andrew Ward in Reykjavik and Leslie Hook in Beijing

Iceland?s president has hailed a Chinese investment as a sign of the country?s blossoming ties with the rising Asian power, while alleging that Europe and the US abandoned their north Atlantic neighbour in the wake of its devastating financial crisis three years ago.

?China and India lent Iceland a helping hand in many constructive ways whereas Europe was hostile and the US was absent,? ?lafur Ragnar Gr?msson told the Financial Times, as he responded to a controversy over the proposed sale of a large tract of Ice-land to a Chinese tycoon for an eco-tourism resort.

Some Icelandic politicians and business leaders are concerned that the project could be a cover for China?s strategic interest in the country as global warming opens up the Arctic to oil exploration and shipping.

But Mr Gr?msson said that, while the sale required scrutiny, he saw no reason to fear Chinese investment and praised the interest shown by China and India in Iceland at a time when relations with its traditional Nato allies have grown tense.

While Iceland received a European-led bail-out from the International Monetary Fund and talks are under way for the country to join the European Union, Mr Gr?msson accused the EU of ?turning their guns? on Iceland during the dispute over money lost by UK and Dutch depositors in the failed Icesave bank. He added that the US had shown ?zero interest? in Iceland since closing its air base near Reykjavik five years ago.

Mr Gr?msson, in office for the past 15 years, is a maverick often at odds with the country?s centre-left government.

While his remarks reflect widespread public resentment over alleged bullying by Iceland?s western allies since the bank crash, not all Icelanders share his enthusiasm for Chinese investment. Some government ministers have expressed reservations over the plan by Huang Nubo, a real estate entrepreneur and former Communist party official, to buy 300 square kilometres of wilderness in the country?s north-east.

Mr Huang told the Financial Times on Friday it would send a negative signal to other Chinese investors in Iceland if the deal fell through. ?It will be like killing the monkey to scare the chickens,? he said while stroking his pet cat, Little Sister Big Eyes. A keen mountaineer and poet, the 55-year-old says he was drawn to Iceland by his love of nature.

Mr Gr?msson has prioritised relations with China and India. He has visited China five times in the past six years and claims to have received more Chinese delegations to Iceland during his presidency than ?the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain combined?.

? The Financial Times Limited 2011