October 24, 2008

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao opened the two-day Asia-Europe Meeting here on Friday, with the summit attended by leaders from 43 nations from the two regions. The summit, at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, was set to be dominated by the global economic crisis.

"The spread of the worsening international financial crisis has seriously affected international financial stability and world economic growth," Wen said in his opening remarks.” We will focus our discussions on how to address the international financial crisis.” The countries represented at the summit, which is held every two years, account for 60 percent of the world's population and about half its economic output.