Leaders from 45 Asian and European nations and organizations began their summit in Beijing on Friday afternoon, with agenda to be dominated by tackling the global financial crisis.

Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered a key-note speech at the opening ceremony after Premier Wen Jiabao gave a red-carpet welcome to the leaders in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.

"Only with strong confidence and concerted efforts can we weather the crisis," Hu said, referring to the ongoing financial crisis triggered by the U.S. credit crunch.

In the speech entitled "Asia and Europe: Cooperation for Win-Win Progress," Hu said China appreciated and supported the positive measures taken by relevant countries in response to the financial crisis. "We hope those measures will produce the desired results soon."

On China's part, Hu said the country had made active efforts to the best of its ability, citing recent measures to stabilize the country's domestic financial system and increase liquidity in the financial markets.

He vowed China would continue to work with the rest of the international community with a sense of responsibility to ensure international financial and economic stability.

While reviewing the course of the ASEM development, Hu hailed its marked achievements in various fields as an important platform for Asia-Europe dialogue and cooperation.

On China's future role in ASEM, Hu said China would continue to live in harmony and seek common development with other Asian countries, advance mutually beneficial cooperation with the EU and its members, deepen China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.

This is the largest gathering of leaders under the Asia-Europe Meeting(ASEM) since its inception in 1996.

Among attendees are French President Nicholas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, President of Republic of Korea (ROK) Lee Myung-bak and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

The ASEM now includes 45 members and represents more than 50 percent of the world's gross domestic product.

The European side is represented by 27 European Union nations and the European Commission. The Asian members count 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan, the ROK, India, Pakistan, Mongolia and the ASEAN Secretariat.

The host nation of the last ASEM summit, Finnish President Tarja Halonen, also delivered a speech. Leaders of this ASEM's three coordiantors, namely European Commission, Brunei and France, also made remarks at the opening ceremony.

Also present at the opening ceremony were other top Chinese leaders, including Wu Bangguo, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang.

The biennial summit offered host China an opportunity to step up relations with other ASEM members as the country's top leadership was engaged in intensive one-on-one meetings on the ASEM sidelines.

With the world preoccupied with the financial turmoil, the two-day summit will also draw the leaders' attention to other topics of energy, climate change, food security and sustainable development at four plenary sessions.

The first session, which was held Friday, was fully devoted to coping with the financial crisis.

As moderator of the session, Premier Wen said, "Asian and Euro countries constitute important forces in ensuring the international financial stability and promoting world economic growth."

Participants took turns in stating their views on how to respond to the crisis and boost trade and investment within ASEM.

The session ended with a statement Friday evening, which said "leaders expressed full confidence that the crisis could be overcome through concerted efforts."

Leaders believed that "it is imperative to handle properly the relationship between financial innovation and regulation and to maintain sound macroeconomic policy," the statement said.

They called for "necessary and timely measures to be taken to preserve the stability of the financial system."

Leaders pledged to undertake "effective and comprehensive reform" of the international monetary and financial systems and agreed to take "quickly appropriate initiatives" in this respect.

But no details were released on the specifics of these initiatives.

The statement stressed that IMF should play a critical role in assisting countries seriously affected by the crisis.

Leaders also supported the convening of an international summit on Nov.15 in Washington D.C. to address the current crisis.

At other sessions on Saturday, China is expected to put forward a proposal on building an eco-city network in Asia, while France, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, would present a statement on climate change.

The summit will conclude with a chairman's statement and a series of proposals bolstering political, economic and cultural cooperation within ASEM.

Following the closing ceremony, leaders from China, Brunei,France and European Commission are scheduled to hold a press conference.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2008)