Finance ministers or leading financial officials from 38 Asian and European nations and the European Union, Sunday called for closer cooperation between the two continents for balanced development of the global economy.

At the one-day Finance Ministers' Meeting of the Asia-Europe Meeting held in the port city of Tianjin, north China, the ministers expressed their optimism on the global and regional economic prospects, and expected global growth to remain robust, though at a more moderate pace, in 2005.

They also noted several downside risks to the global and regional economy, such as continued high and volatile oil prices, risks of increasing inflation in some countries, and interest rates increase by major economies.

They voiced serious concerns over the current global economic imbalances and urged all countries concerned to implement appropriate policies to contribute to an orderly global readjustment.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech, in which he reiterated China's positions on its currency exchange policy.

The meeting, chaired by Jin Renqing, finance minister of China,was also attended by senior representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Central Bank.

Under the policy theme of "closer ASEM economic and financial cooperation," the participants discussed issues of global and regional macro-economic developments, global development agenda, and closer ASEM economic and financial cooperation, and reached consensus on many issues.

Source: Xinhua