Senior officials from the European Union and China opened a two-day dialogue in Brussels on Thursday to deepen their economic and trade relations and seek an early end to the global financial crisis.

The meeting brought together key policy makers from both sides, including EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan.

An additional eight EU Commissioners and 12 Chinese ministers and vice ministers were set to participate in the talks, which were to cover a series of topics, including trade, investment, product safety and intellectual property rights.

"The way out of this economic crisis is not to shrink into our shells. We need to kick-start our economies, fight protectionism and create new opportunities for trade and investment," Ashton said in a statement before the meeting.

Wang, in an article published in the New York Times on Wednesday, called for a clear commitment from the dialogue to reject protectionism.

"China and the EU, two major economies and stakeholders in the world, should take a responsible attitude and demonstrate their common, clear commitment against trade protectionism at the second China-EU high-level economic dialogue," he said.

Wang said China and the EU should take advantage of the dialogue platform "to strengthen communication and cooperation and jointly oppose trade protectionism."

On the sidelines of the meeting, Wang was scheduled to have a working lunch with the CEOs of a number of leading European companies.

The gathering is the second time that the EU and China have held a high-level economic and trade dialogue. The first was in Beijing in April 2008.

The EU is China's largest trading partner and technology supplier. China is the EU's second largest trading partner.

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2009)