Beijing - This week's largest ever gathering of Asian and European leaders was planned to focus on efforts to combat climate change and promote sustainable development, but those efforts now look likely to be overshadowed by the need to respond to the global financial turmoil.

Talks on the financial crisis are expected to be "very intense" between leaders of the 27 European and 16 Asian nations at the seventh biannual Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing, Serge Abou, the EU ambassador to China, told reporters.

"The main thing is to come out with strong and united messages conveying confidence," Herve Ladsous, the French ambassador to China, said of the talks on global finance.

"China has made it very clear that they will contribute towards a common effort," Ladsous said.

Separate "clusters" of discussions are planned on banking and financial systems, he said.

Expansion of cooperation between Asia and Europe in trade and service industries could play an important role in resolving the financial crisis, Yi Xiaozhun, China's vice-minister of commerce, said on Monday.

"In addition to stabilizing financial markets, open, stable and fair international trade relations are very important for restoring confidence and getting over the economic difficulty," state media quoted Yi as saying.

Asia and Europe "really need an agreement on free trade," Abou said.

"We sincerely hope that this year's conference will give a push to the trade talks," he said.

This year's ASEM summit includes several new members, notably India and Pakistan, meaning the delegates represent a combined 50-60 per cent of the global population and economy.

France, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, will present an ASEM statement on climate change under the theme of "Vision and action: towards a win-win solution."

Host nation China has drafted another joint statement on the financial crisis, while the EU wants to mark the 60th anniversary of the universal declaration on human rights with a "summit commitment to implementing human rights," said EU officials in Brussels.

The officials said the EU would push for "the maximum commitment we can get" from Asia on signing up to a post-Kyoto deal on climate change at talks in Copenhagen in December 2009.

But China and other Asian nations appear unlikely to shift from their insistence that European and other developed countries must take the lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"China is a big energy consuming power in the world, so we face lots of pressure," Zhang Haibing, an economist at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The ruling Communist Party's promotion of leader Hu Jintao's "scientific outlook on development" reflects the importance that China attaches show to environmental issues, Zhang said.

China also wants to make more use of advanced environmental technology from EU nations, she said.

"The main difference between China and the EU is the idea of 'common but differentiated responsibilities'," she said, referring to China's support for the UN principle of different goals for developing and developed nations.

Despite the anticipation of several joint statements, Zhang said the ASEM meeting was "not likely to reach any substantial achievement."

But she denied that bilateral meetings between the leaders would be more important than the main forum, except perhaps for "certain countries or under certain circumstances."

The Asian nations attending the summit are the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, South Korea and new members India, Pakistan and Mongolia.

The Thai and Cambodian prime ministers are expected to discuss their nations' recent border skirmish on the sidelines of the meeting.

Talks between the prime ministers of India and China, and between the leaders of South Korea and Japan, should be other highlights among the dozens of bilateral sessions expected.

But discussions on the financial crisis and economic recession are likely to dominate the two-day summit.

"The recent turbulence in the international financial market has dealt a blow to the world economy and aroused the concern of the entire international community," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in a speech to an ASEM forum last week.

"No country in the world can expect to stay away from such issues as global warming, environmental degradation, resource shortage and the increasingly grave international economic and financial situation or address them on one's own," Yang said.

"In this connection, strengthened cooperation between Asia and Europe not only serves the immediate need but also has a long-term strategic significance," he said. (dpa)