SYDNEY, June 2 (Reuters) - Bank of China (601988.SS) chairman Ge Haijiao has travelled to Papua New Guinea (PNG) as the world's fourth-largest bank seeks an operating licence in the Pacific Islands nation, which is seeking to boost China trade while expanding U.S. defence ties. China, a major infrastructure lender and creditor in the Pacific Islands, struck a security pact with PNG's neighbour Solomon Islands last year. State-owned Bank of China has applied for a commercial operating licence that is still being processed. China had grown from a rural economy to the second-largest on earth, he said, urging Bank of China to fill gaps in the PNG banking market. Bank of China said in a statement it was the first branch of a Chinese bank to open in the Pacific Island country and it would play a role in local economic revitalisation.

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Persons: Ge Haijiao, Antony Blinken, James Marape, Ge, Marape, Xi Jinping, Kirsty Needham, Tang, Jamie Freed Organizations: SYDNEY, Bank of China, U.S, of, Bank of, Initiative, Thomson Locations: Papua New Guinea, China, Washington, Beijing, Solomon, Australia's Torres Strait, State, of China, Islands, Bank of China, Sydney