Premier Wen Jiabao receives a Greek parliament gold medal as Greek counterpart George Papandreou (left) and President of Parliament Fillipos Petsanlikos applaud him in Athens yesterday. Wen urged the EU to recognize China's "full market economystatus" and relax restrictions on high-tech exports and said China was committed to assisting Europe's economic recovery.

CHINA has pledged to support a stable euro and not reduce its holdings of European government bonds ahead of an EU-China summit this week while urging the 27-nation bloc to recognize China's "full market economystatus" and relax remaining restrictions to high-tech exports.

Premier Wen Jiaobao said in Greece yesterday: "I have repeatedly expressed China's support for a stable euro and said that we will not reduce the amount of European bonds that we hold."

Wen arrived in Athens on Saturday, starting a week's trip to the region that will also take him to Italy and Turkey. Wen, who offered on Saturday to buy Greek government bonds when debt-laden Athens resumes issuing, said he was glad Greece was starting to emerge from the shadows of its debt crisis.

Joint efforts

Wen and his Greek counterpart, George Papandreou, said in a joint statement that the world's nations need to coordinate economic policies for global recovery to find a sure footing.

"Global economic recovery is a journey with many turns and a full exit from it requires joint efforts," Wen said.

The EU is China's largest trading partner, and in 2009 it imported 215 billion euros (US$295 billion) worth of Chinese goods.

Ahead of Wednesday's China-EU summit, Wen urged the block to recognize China as a market economy, a status that would make it less vulnerable to anti-dumping charges under WTO rules.

Meanwhile, Wen said China would boost copyrightprotection and widen bilateral trade. "China commits to improving investmentenvironment, to intensifycopyrightprotection, widen bilateral trade and upgrade technology cooperation," he said in his speech in Greece's parliament.

Despite its growth, China remains an emerging economy, Wen said. "Per capita GDP is just one-eighth of Greece's and the percentage of population below the poverty line is three times that of Greece. China continues to be an emerging country."

Bilateral trade volume should double to US$8 billion euros a year in 2015 with Greek traditional exports, such as olive oil, increasing.

"A few months ago, we signed an agreement to purchase 290 tons of Greek olive oil," Wen said. "Last night, for the first time in my life, I dipped a bit of bread in olive oil. It tasted very good."

Traveling with business leaders and eight members of his Cabinet, Wen vowed to double trade with Greece to US$8 billion within five years, and provide a US$5 billion credit line to Greek shipowners buying Chinese-built vessels.

Yesterday, Wen visited the Acropolis with Papandreou and met Greek President Karolos Papoulias. Today, he flies to Brussels before traveling on to Italy and Turkey.

• parliament [´pɑ:ləmənt] n.议(国)会 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• economy [i´kɔnəmi] n.经济；机制；组织 (初中英语单词)
• stable [´steibəl] n.马棚 a.稳固的 (初中英语单词)
• european [juərə´pi:ən] a.欧洲的 n.欧洲人 (初中英语单词)
• premier [´premiə] n.总理 a.首要的 (初中英语单词)
• greece [gri:s] n.希腊 (初中英语单词)
• amount [ə´maunt] n.总数；数量 v.合计 (初中英语单词)
• turkey [´tə:ki] n.火鸡 (初中英语单词)
• emerge [i´mə:dʒ] vi.出现；显露；暴露 (初中英语单词)
• partner [´pɑ:tnə] n.伙伴 v.同....合作 (初中英语单词)
• meanwhile [´mi:n´wail] n.&ad.其间；同时 (初中英语单词)
• protection [prə´tekʃən] n.警戒；护照；通行证 (初中英语单词)
• investment [in´vestmənt] n.投资；(时间等)投入 (初中英语单词)
• despite [di´spait] prep.尽管 (初中英语单词)
• percentage [pə´sentidʒ] n.百分数；比例；部分 (初中英语单词)
• poverty [´pɔvəti] n.贫穷(乏，瘠)；不足 (初中英语单词)
• volume [´vɔlju:m, ´vɑljəm] n.卷；书籍；体积；容量 (初中英语单词)
• agreement [ə´gri:mənt] n.同意；一致；协议 (初中英语单词)
• cabinet [´kæbinit] n.橱，柜；内阁 (初中英语单词)
• athens [´æθinz] n.雅典 (高中英语单词)
• summit [´sʌmit] n.顶(点)；绝顶 (高中英语单词)
• crisis [´kraisis] n.转折点；危机 (高中英语单词)
• recovery [ri´kʌvəri] n.重获；获得；恢复 (高中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən] num.万亿 (高中英语单词)
• environment [in´vaiərənmənt] n.郊区；周围；条件 (高中英语单词)
• intensify [in´tensifai] n.加强；加剧 (高中英语单词)
• applaud [ə´plɔ:d] v.鼓掌赞成；称赞 (英语四级单词)
• repeatedly [ri´pi:tidli] ad.反复地；再三地 (英语四级单词)
• status [´steitəs] n.身份；情形；状况 (英语四级单词)
• copyright [´kɔpirait] n.版权；著作权 (英语四级单词)
• traditional [trə´diʃənəl] a.传统的，习惯的 (英语四级单词)
• brussels [´brʌslz] n.布鲁塞尔 (英语四级单词)
• coordinate [kəu´ɔ:dineit] a.&n.同等的 v.协调 (英语六级单词)
• footing [´futiŋ] n.立脚点；基础；地位 (英语六级单词)