Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner mocks Chinese accent during talks with Beijing

She ridiculed Chinese mispronunciation of Spanish in a tweet

Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (Reuters)

Cristina Kirchner has risked offending her Chinese hosts by mocking their accent during an official trip.

Argentinian president Kirchner, who is currently in China to seek investment in her country's economy, made fun of the accent by replacing the letter r with l in a "humorous" tweet.

She posted in Spanish: “Are they here only for the lice and petloleum” on Wednesday afternoon.

She followed her offensive remark saying that the "ridiculous and absurd" situation could "only be digested with humour".

Argentina is in the middle of a debt crisis that is predicted to rumble on well into 2015. In August 2014, the country defaulted on its debt for the second time in 13 years.

Kirchner's country has long courted Chinese investment in areas such as construction, natural gas and power. China is Argentina's second-largest trade partner and lent the nation in excess of $7.9billion in 2014 alone.

The president may well be praying that her risky tweet doesn't put them off future deals.