The EU troika and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Monday will review relations between the 27-nation bloc and China and progress in negotiations toward a strategic partnership agreement.

According to the Slovenian EU presidency, the ministerial meeting is expected to discuss issues of common concern, including relations across the Taiwan Strait, human rights, climate change and the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula.

The meeting will also serve as preparation for the EU-China summit, to be held in France on December 1 this year.

The EU troika will be headed by Dimitrij Rupel, the Slovenian foreign minister and president of the EU General Affairs and Foreign Relations Council.

The EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner will also attend the meeting.

Rupel will meet his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi again on Tuesday for a working breakfast before Yang's departure after a less than 24-hour visit.

Yang, who will arrive in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana on Monday afternoon, is the second Chinese foreign minister to visit Slovenia since the republic declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.

Former Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen paid a visit to Ljubljana in 1993.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2008)