Published: Monday November 30, 2009 MYT 10:17:00 AM

EU seeks China's help on climate change, currency

NANJING, China (AP): European leaders are seeking China's help in easing currency pressures on euro-zone economies and pushing for deeper commitments on climate change at a summit Monday that is the most substantive dialogue between the two sides in two years.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Sunday he wants a more substantial commitment from China, the world's biggest emitter of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, before next month's climate change talks in Copenhagen.

A promise of deeper emission cuts would help craft an agreement at Copenhagen. "What is at stake is the very future of our planet," Barroso told reporters after dining with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Recent pledges on reducing carbon emissions by both China and the U.S., which together emit about 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, were welcome but inadequate, he said.

"Everyone is committing," Barroso said. "We have to see at the end if all these commitments together lead us to the minimum necessary that according to science we have to do. So far, we are not yet there," he said.

Like most summits, the event in Nanjing, west of Shanghai, is carefully scripted to prevent major surprises.

Coming just two weeks after U.S. President Barack Obama's state visit to China, the summit with the 27-member European Union highlights the Chinese economy's star role in leading the world economic recovery, but also the difficulties of ensuring growth is sustainable and balanced.

On Sunday, top financial officials of the 16 nations that use the euro made clear their dissatisfaction with controls on the Chinese yuan - also know as the renminbi - that keep it linked to the weakening dollar, putting upward pressure on the euro.

"We think an orderly and gradual appreciation of the renminbi would be in the best interests of China and of the global economy," said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker, who heads economic talks in the eurozone.

Loosening currency controls to allow the yuan to fluctuate more freely, and presumably gain in value, is in the best interests both of China and the world economy, Juncker and other top financial officials said.

Echoing similar arguments from the U.S. and other trading partners, they said they told Wen faster reforms would give China more leverage over its own economic policy, giving its citizens greater purchasing power and thus boosting domestic demand - a key requirement for more balanced, sustainable growth.

There was no immediate word from the Chinese on their response, though after Sunday's meetings, the official Xinhua News Agency reiterated a comment by Beijing's vice foreign minister, Zhang Zhijun, pledging to "give play to the fundamental role of market supply and demand in setting the yuan exchange rate, and keep it basically stable around reasonable, balanced levels."

Despite such friction, relations between the two sides have warmed after a relatively chilly spell last year over French President Nicolas Sarkozy's threat to boycott the 2008 Olympic Games over China's handling of protests in Tibet.

China-EU relations need to be more "strategic, comprehensive and stable," Xinhua cited Wen as saying Sunday. He urged the two sides to expand consensus and work on building a "just and reasonable international political and economic new order," Xinhua said.

In Monday's talks, EU leaders will be looking for progress on longtime economic issues, including hopes for an improved investment climate for foreign companies, stronger protections for intellectual property rights and more openness to foreign bids for government procurement contracts.

China has its own grievances, over antidumping cases and Europe's refusal to view it as a market-based economy - a practice that gives Chinese companies less protection in EU investigations into whether they are "dumping," or illegally selling below-cost goods.

China's human rights record remains a sore point for European leaders, while Beijing has long sought an end to the EU's arms embargo on China. It also is critical of meetings by leaders of some EU nations, such as France and Denmark, with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi is expected to discuss the thorny topic of Myanmar, whose military regime has close ties to Beijing, with his Swedish counterpart, Carl Bildt and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

While the two sides remain at odds over various issues, they share a determination to keep their dialogue open, Barroso said.

"There are some issues where we do not agree, China and the EU," Barroso said, but he added, "We should not put into question our common interests."

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