China's Hu Jintao meets Italian leaders ahead of G8 summit

Jul 6, 2009, 14:44 GMT

Rome - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said Monday he raised the issue of human rights in China during talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Rome.

'We agreed that the kind of development and economic and social progress that is taking place in China places new requirements on the matter of human rights,' Napolitano said adressing reporters following the meeting.

Just hours before the two leaders met, reports said some 140 people died and more than 800 were injured in clashes between police and members of the Uighur ethnic minority in China's western region of Xinjiang.

Hu, who is in Italy to attend a Group of Eight summit beginning Wednesday in L'Aquila, made no reference to human rights in his statement to reporters, nor did he mention the bloody clashes in his country.

The friendship between the Italian and Chinese people is based on 'equality, mutual respect and reciprocal trust,' the Chinese leader said.

Hu, accompanied by more than 300 Chinese business entrepreneurs, later met Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and also presided over the signing of several business deals involving Italian and Chinese businesses.

Among these is a joint venture between Italian car maker Fiat and China's Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC Group) for the production of cars and engines for the Chinese market.

The deal includes plans to for a 400-million-euro (559-million- dollar) plant located in Changsha, capital of China's Hunan province.

Berlusconi, speaking at a news conference with Hu, did not refer to the clashes in China, choosing instead to focus on bilateral trade and China's possible role at the G8 summit of which Italy holds the current presidency.

Berlusconi said he expects at the G8 summit a 'positive intervention,' by Hu to help restart the so-called Doha negotiations on global free trade.

For his part, Hu said Italy and China would have to work together to 'oppose protectionism and safeguard an open and impartial global trade system.'

In L'Aquila, G8 leaders from the US, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia, are scheduled to involve China and other members of the so-called G8 plus 5 - which also includes emerging nations India, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil - in a session devoted to the international economic crisis.