Analysts said the goal may be reachable given AMD's low China market share, which recently crossed into double digits, and its competitive pricing over chief rival Intel Corp

But it will also face stiff resistance from Intel, which counts China as one of its biggest and most lucrative markets, they added.

AMD's sales drive comes amid a flurry of activity at the company, which made China a top priority with the arrival of new chief executive Hector Ruiz in April 2002.

"Our new CEO is putting a lot of focus on China," Thomas Tong, senior product marketing manager for Greater China, told Reuters in an interview this week in Hong Kong. "We're getting a lot more support, a lot more resources than in the past."

Hewlett-Packard Co, the sixth-largest personal computer seller in China with about three percent of the market, began selling PCs with AMD central processing units (CPUs) in two of its five China models in June, Tong said.

Sales of the models -- the first AMD-equipped desktop PCs available nationally -- have grown quickly and now account for nearly half of Hewlett-Packard's PC sales in China, he said.

But AMD, with about 20 percent of the global CPU market, is also talking to the nation's other top players, Tong said.

Among those, the top prize is Legend Group Ltd, the country's biggest PC maker with 28 percent of the market, whose models currently carry Intel CPUs.

AMD has already signed an informal agreement to sell to Legend, though the Chinese computer giant has not agreed to any specific commitments, according to a knowledgeable source.