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BEIJING: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged China to take a greater role in global affairs and thanked the nation's leaders for supporting him as head of the world body on Wednesday.
"The United Nations needs the strong participation, cooperation and partnership of China, and I count on your continuing leadership and cooperation," Ban told Chinese President Hu Jintao.
"You have shown great leadership to the world, how when nations and people... are united, you can overcome."
Ban praised China's response to the May 12 magnitude 8.0 earthquake that left nearly 88,000 people dead and up to five million homeless in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
He also thanked Hu for helping to get him elected last year as the first UN chief from Asia.
"Being an Asian secretary general I was elected with your strong support," Ban said.
"I feel really at home, thank you very much for these opportunities."
Hu thanked the UN for its earthquake relief efforts and pledged to support Ban in his campaign to reform the world body.
"China agrees with necessary and reasonable UN reforms based on democratic consultations and in order to raise the effectiveness and authority of the UN," state television quoted Hu as saying.
"China will maintain a responsible and constructive attitude and strengthen its cooperation with the UN and support and cooperate with the secretary general's work."
Ban earlier met with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and urged China to help alleviate an ongoing global grain shortage and contribute more to world food aid, a UN official told journalists.
But Wen was not so forthcoming, saying that China must first seek to feed its own population on the nation's limited arable land, state television said.
"Faced with the issue of a world grain shortage, all sides should strengthen multilateral cooperation and on the basis of aid, financial and trade measures address this issue ... in a win-win manner," Wen was quoted as saying.
Ban, currently on a tour of Asia, also urged China to take up greater responsibilities in the fight against global warming during a speech on Tuesday at a local university.
-AFP/jk
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