Chinese premier Wen Jiabao called on Greece, Spain and Italy to embrace budget cuts and get their finances in order after meeting visiting German chancellor Angela Merkel today.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has called for efforts to stabilise weakening exports amid signs the country’s economy is weakening despite stimulus efforts.

China's premier says the country should be able to meet its economic targets this year, despite a slowdown in July growth.

China's economic woes that have brought growth to a three-year low will continue for some time, but the slower expansion remains within expectations, Premier Wen Jiabao said today.

China’s premier called for additional efforts to support growth yesterday, signalling Beijing’s willingness to take action after a recent series of economic indicators suggested that the world’s second-biggest economy will slow further in the second quarter.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has called for more priority to be given to boosting China’s slowing economic growth, a state news agency reported, after unusually weak industrial activity in April prompted alarm about the world’s second-largest economy.

As China’s high-octane economy shifts to a lower gear, virtually everyone agrees the double- digit, super-charged boom years are drawing to an end.

Premier Wen Jiabao, China’s top economic official, said its state-owned banks are monopolies that must be broken up, acknowledging mounting economic and political pressure to reform an industry whose vast profits are fuelling public anger.

Syria has accepted Kofi Annan’s plan to end the bloodshed in the country, the UN envoy said.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has warned the ruinous turmoil that engulfed the country in the past could re-emerge unless it tackles political reforms.

Asian stock markets slid today over worries about slower economic growth in China and a possible snag in the deal for Greece to get its bailout money.

China will continue to invest in eurozone government debt and it remains confident in the euro, the country’s central bank governor said yesterday, while calling on Europeans to produce more attractive investment products for China.

China is ready to help resolve Europe’s debt crisis, its premier said yesterday, but he gave no details a day after the nation’s sovereign wealth fund ducked calls by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for it to buy euro government bonds.

China has a stake in helping eurozone countries get through their debt crisis, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday, pointing to Europe’s importance as a market and hinting at more possible support for beleaguered exporters.

China is considering increasing its participation in the rescue funds aimed at resolving the European debt crisis.

Although China has dismissed a proposed ‘G-2’ agreement, it has clearly indicated that it plans to work closely with both the US and Europe, writes Li Zhaoxing

A bus taking primary school pupils home has slipped off a country road into an irrigation ditch in eastern China, killing 15 children and highlighting continuing safety problems in the country’s school transport system.

President Barack Obama and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao conferred in a surprise meeting on the sidelines of a major Asian summit, likely focusing on the economic matters that have prompted disputes between the two major world powers.

MOODY’S has cut the credit ratings of two French banks because of their exposure to Greece’s debt, highlighting growing risks to Europe’s financial sector from a deepening eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao has offered his country’s support for Europe and its common currency amid the eurozone’s debt crisis.

China’s premier has ruled out a faster rise in its tightly controlled currency to fight inflation, citing the possible impact on business and social stability.

China’s government vowed today to clamp down on inflation and urgently raise incomes as it pushes to spread the benefits of economic growth at a time when living standards are rising, but so are calls for greater change.

South Korea’s president pledged today to boost security around islands near the site of a North Korean artillery attack as the North warned of more retaliation for any “reckless military provocations”.

The Chinese and Japanese prime ministers held an impromptu meeting in a hallway at a conference in Europe, in the highest-level contact between the countries since a bitter territorial dispute erupted a month ago, both governments confirmed Tuesday.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has expressed optimism that the United States and China would resolve major trade frictions, even as he rejected US claims that Beijing's currency policies cost American jobs.

More than 1,300 people were feared dead today after flash floods and landslides struck north-west China.

SOUTH Korea broadened efforts yesterday to convince the world and its own public that North Korea sank one of its warships, sharing evidence with Russian torpedo experts and preparing a special briefing for influential bloggers and Twitter personalities.

CHINA resisted pressure yesterday from South Korea and Japan to censure North Korea publicly for the sinking of a warship, calling only for regional tensions over the incident to be defused.

The prime minister of China, North Korea’s main ally, offered condolences today to South Korea for the sinking of a warship blamed on Pyongyang after promising his country – under pressure to punish the North – would not defend any country guilty of the attack.

CHINA will not protect those who sank a South Korean warship, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday, as he came under pressure in Seoul to join an international push to punish North Korea.

THIRTEEN vocational students were hurt in China yesterday – including one who had a hand chopped off – when they were attacked by youths with cleavers, after a string of violent school assaults.

The first group of rescuers and divers today entered a flooded Chinese mine where 153 workers have been trapped for almost a week, but returned within hours and described the situation underground “very difficult.”

The first group of rescuers and divers today entered a flooded Chinese mine where 153 workers have been trapped for almost a week, while no further signs of life came from underground since tapping was heard yesterday.

Tapping has been heard coming from a flooded Chinese coal mine where 153 workers were trapped more than five days ago, a rescue official said today.

Arsene Wenger will not gamble on the fitness of influential captain Cesc Fabregas for tomorrow night’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Barcelona at Emirates Stadium – but has promised his young Arsenal team can nevertheless deliver a performance to remember.

Beijing: Premier Wen Jiabao warned of “latent risk” in China’s banks and pledged to crack down on property speculation as the government faces the consequences of flooding the economy with money to drive growth.

US President Barack Obama raced from one impromptu meeting to another and made an animated plea for compromise at the climate change summit in Copenhagen today, making plain his frustration over the difficulty of pushing world leaders to settle on a plan to combat global warming.

There is still “a lot of work to be done” to secure any international deal on climate change, Britain's Gordon Brown said tonight as talks between world leaders in Copenhagen remained deadlocked.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao rebuffed an appeal from European leaders for faster reforms of currency policies that keep the yuan linked to the US dollar, as summit meetings wrapped up without any major new initiatives.

CHINA’S premier yesterday pledged $10 billion (€6.73bn) in low interest loans to African nations over the next three years and said Beijing would cancel the government debts of some of the poorest of those countries, as the Asian powerhouse looked to deflect criticism that its investments in the continent were motivated purely by greed.

China’s premier has been given a gala welcome to Pyongyang by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, bolstering indications that the North is preparing to rejoin talks over its nuclear weapons programmes.

Global business groups have made an unusual direct appeal to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to scrap an order for personal computer makers to supply controversial web filtering software, citing security and privacy concerns.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao today said Beijing is willing to hold future talks with the Dalai Lama as long as Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader gives up his “separatist stance”.