U.S. President George W. Bush hosted the annual U.S.-EU summit here Monday with the two side stressing the importance of cooperation to address global challenges.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is holding the rotating EU presidency, took part in the summit.

Bush and EU leaders discussed a wide range of issues, including preventing nuclear proliferation, combating the global threat of terrorism, assisting reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, promoting peace and democracy in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The leaders also discussed efforts to enhance transatlantic cooperation to reduce regulatory and trade barrier and to address energy security and climate change.

"EU-U.S. relations are very important to our country; that not only is it important for us to strategize how promote prosperity and peace, but it's important for us to achieve concrete results. and we have done so," Bush told reporters after the summit.

In her remarks, Merkel said the EU-U.S. summit was "an open and candid discussion that clearly showed us that we need to work together; that diplomacy can only be successful if we stand together."

Speaking to reporters, Barroso spoke highly of EU-U.S. economic relations, "we signed very important framework for advancing trnas- Atlantic European integration ... Our economic relations is by far the most important in the world ... But we can work together more to make that relations even easier."

The U.S.-EU summit serves as a political platform to coordinate the work of business and economic organizations already in existence.

The two sides have been trying to dismantle obstacles to economic relations and to work on their economic integration through sector-to-sector dialogues, but achievement of the effort has been limited due to lack of political visibility and strong commitment from both sides, diplomats and observers said.

Source: Xinhua