The 10th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Plus China, Japan, and South Korea (10+3) opened in Cebu on Sunday, with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and leaders of the 10 ASEAN member countries, Japan and South Korea attending.

The leaders will have in-depth exchanges of views on how to build up an East Asian community through the "10+3" mechanism.

At the summit held in the second largest city of the Philippines, the topic of cooperation in East Asia should be extensively and fully discussed with the "10+3" cooperation as a main channel and ASEAN playing a leading role, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said earlier.

The Chinese premier will put forward initiatives to strengthen "10+3" cooperation and addressing issues related to disaster mitigation, women, finance, poverty alleviation and culture, he added.

The "10+3" meeting is a mechanism designed to strengthen dialogue and communication, discuss cooperation, as well as to promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

ASEAN, established on Aug. 8, 1967 in Bangkok, now groups Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The Chinese premier arrived in Cebu on Saturday to attend a series of summits. He will also pay an official visit to the Southeast Asian nation. It is the fourth time for Premier Wen to attend such ASEAN-related summits since 2003.

Source: Xinhua