Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday in Helsinki that Asian and European countries should deepen their cooperation to jointly meet new challenges facing the two continents.

Wen made the remarks in a speech at the sixth summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Helsinki, Finland.

Asia and Europe have carried out extensive, diversified cooperation and deepened political dialogue over the past decade, he said.

"We enjoy closer economic links, rapidly growing cooperation in social areas and expanding cultural and people-to-people exchanges," Wen said. "ASEM has become a strategic platform for Asia and Europe to strengthen coordination, further cooperation and pursue common development."

He said that today's world is moving towards multi-polarity and that economic globalization is gaining momentum, accompanied by rapid progress in science and technology and ever-closing regional cooperation.

"Peace, cooperation and development are the general trend of our times," said the premier.

Wen, however, noted that there is also growing instability and discord, as seen in mounting traditional and non-traditional security threats, unbalanced global economic development and a widening gap in wealth.

"Facing these new developments, people naturally place higher expectations on the ASEM summit, and it is imperative that we adopt a long-term strategy to plan our future cooperation," he said.

The premier said Asian and European nations should set the following goals for ASEM:

-- Making Asia and Europe more influential in addressing major global issues through expanding dialogue and cooperation;

-- Promoting diversified development of culture and civilization through enhanced mutual political trust;

-- Furthering economic cooperation in substantive terms on the basis of equality and mutual benefit;

-- Advancing institutional building for cooperation that meet long -term needs as called for; and

-- Maintaining ASEM's openness by increasing its outreach.

Wen also put forward an eight-point proposal to consolidate and further develop the new Asia-Europe partnership in the interest of global peace and prosperity:

-- Enhancing political dialog and better responding to security threats;

-- Deepening cultural exchanges to promote harmonious co-existence;

-- Intensifying financial cooperation to promote balanced economic development;

-- Expanding dialogue and cooperation to ensure energy security;

-- Supporting the multilateral trading system to achieve common development;

-- Encouraging business participation and expanding channels of cooperation;

-- Addressing non-traditional security issues and effectively preventing and controlling avian influenza, as communicable diseases and other non-traditional security threats greatly undermine the economic and social development of all countries; and

-- Narrowing the urban-rural gap to realize balanced economic development.

Wen arrived in Helsinki on Saturday for the two-day summit, which also marks ASEM's 10th anniversary and gathers heads of state or government from 13 Asian countries and 25 member states of the European Union.

Source: Xinhua