Prime Minister Tony Blair met Chinese President Hu Jintao today at the start of a China-European Union summit focused on boosting trade and tackling global warming.

US aircraft maker Boeing Co said it has selected Messier-Dowty, the Gloucester-based business owned by France's state-owned Ste Nationale d'Etude et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation, to provide the main and nose landing gear for the planned 7E7 fuel-efficient passenger plane, also known as "Dreamliner".

The British economy, Europe’s second-largest, may outpace the euro region for a fifth year in 2004, suggesting the central bank will raise interest rates more quickly than its European counterpart, surveys of economists showed.