Nairobi - Kenyan police have barred the media from the home of the grandmother of US presidential hopeful Barack Obama in the run-up to next week's US elections, news reports said Thursday.

Local and international journalists have been increasingly pestering Sarah Obama and her family in the small village of Kogelo in western Kenya as the elections approach.

Police now have placed an embargo on all interviews with or photographs of Senator Obama's extended family in Kenya until after the voting.

Beijing - Asian and European Union leaders on Saturday called for the international community to act quickly and decisively at a conference on responses to the global financial crisis next month in Washington.

"Lessons should be learned from the financial crisis, the responsibilities should be clarified for governments, companies and supervision respectively," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told reporters at the close of the biannual Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

Beijing - The first Asia-Europe Meeting was held in 1996 in Bangkok as informal talks among 16 European Union members and 10 Asian nations.

The seventh summit this year has grown to include 45 delegations: the European Union's 27 members, 16 Asian states as well as the European Commission and the secretariat of the 10-nation Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The participants represent more than half the world: 58 per cent of its population, 60 per cent of its trade and 50 per cent of its economic performance.

Beijing - The largest-ever gathering of Asian and European leaders opened on Friday to discuss how to respond to the global financial crisis and combat climate change.

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

EU officials said separate "clusters" of discussions were planned on banking and financial systems, and that the EU nations hoped the meeting would promote trade talks between the two continents.

Beijing - The prime ministers of China and Japan on Friday pledged to cooperate in maintaining stability in the face of the global financial crisis.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso held talks amid a series of bilateral meetings before a summit of Asian and European leaders in Beijing on Friday and Saturday.

Wen told Aso that the two nations should have "more policy dialogue and coordination to maintain stability in the financial markets," the Chinese foreign ministry reported.

Cooperation between China and Japan in the face of the international financial crisis was "vital for the stability of Asia," the ministry quoted Wen as saying.

Taipei - Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party is to stage an anti-China protest on Saturday, to be followed by a series of demonstrations when Chinese top envoy Chen Yunlin visits the island next month, the party leader said Friday.

"We will start a series of events, including a large-scale march in Taipei on Saturday, to make our voices known to Chen Yunlin during his Taiwan visit that we do not want military threats, tainted food, and suppression of our sovereignty from China," said DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen.