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BEIJING: Climate change is expected to dominate discussions when Chinese and European Union leaders meet in the eastern city of Nanjing on Monday, just a week before the Copenhagen climate summit.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will meet with European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who holds the rotating EU presidency.
On the eve of the summit Wen will also meet with the eurozone's top finance officials to discuss one of the thorniest issues between the two sides: the value of the Chinese currency.
The delegation - led by Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet and EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia - is expected to renew calls to revalue the yuan.
Europe fears that the rise of the euro against the yuan will hurt EU exports to China as they become more expensive, and eventually slow the continent's economic recovery from the financial crisis.
However, a week before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen begins on December 7, concerns over greenhouse gas emissions were expected to overshadow other issues.
For the first time, Beijing put specific numbers this week on its Copenhagen offer, announcing it would curb the emissions per unit of gross domestic product in 2020 by between 40 and 45 per cent, based on 2005 levels.
The pledge is basically a promise of greater energy efficiency, but China's fast-growing emissions will continue to rise along with its economy.
The plan announced by China - the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases - signalled that maintaining economic growth remained its priority.
The EU unilaterally offered in December 2008 to cut its emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 based on 1990 levels and pledged to raise that to 30 per cent if an ambitious international agreement could be reached.
Barroso and Reinfeldt welcomed Beijing's announcement as "a positive sign" but also added "the proposed targets were disappointing for some".
"We will continue to urge the United States, China and all our other partners in these negotiations to do the maximum possible so that we can reach an agreement in Copenhagen," the statement said.
"Only a good week before the Copenhagen UN conference on climate change we will stress the need for an ambitious and global result, which includes structures to finance mitigation", said Barroso, in another statement.
Bilateral relations is the other important topic at the talks.
China is expected to offer reassuring words on the importance of the EU, its largest trading partner, after US President Barack Obama's visit here fuelled talk of a "G2" world dominated by Washington and Beijing.
"After an American visit that left both Washington and Beijing feeling dissatisfied, China could be tempted to shift its attention to the European Union," said Valerie Niquet, director of the French Institute for International Relations' Asia centre.
However, she added, "it's possible that pressure from the Chinese side means difficult questions such as lifting the arms sales embargo or (China's) market economy status once again become pressing demands on China's part."
In any case, the Nanjing talks mark the first "substantial summit we have had since 2007," one senior European official said on condition of anonymity.
China and the EU restarted talks at a summit in Prague in May after Beijing cancelled a December 2008 summit in protest at a meeting between the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
However, the Nanjing talks come at a transitional stage for the European bloc, a day before the first permanent EU president Herman Van Rompuy and incoming foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton assume their new roles on December 1.
"The summit at the end of November is happening before the new personalities take the stage. This will be another summit about waiting," said Francois Godement, director of the Asia Centre in Paris.
- AFP/yb
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