China eyes Europe’s ex-communist East

POLAND: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao ends a four-nation European tour with a two-day visit to Poland starting Wednesday, focused on ahigh profile regional trade and investment summit with 16 fellow premiers.

Having already inked an accord with Iceland on cooperation in the oil-rich Arctic region and opened the Hannover Messe -- the world's leading industry and trade fair -- with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Jiabao will now turn his attention to the Europe's up-and-coming ex-communist East.

Premiers from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and host Poland are to attend the unprecedented Poland-Central Europe-China trade summit Thursday in Warsaw.

Three hundred Chinese firms and 450 companies from across the region, including 300 from Poland, are also due to attend.

AFP