Leaders also will discuss macroeconomic policy and the value of the Chinese yuan at the meeting Monday in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun told reporters.

"China is an open market and we want to work with our European counterparts to oppose protectionism," said Sun Yongfu, a senior Commerce Ministry official who also briefed reporters. "We welcome more products from foreign countries to China and also from the EU."

The summit will be co-chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, Zhang said.

Responding to European pressure for China to let its currency rise, Zhang repeated promises that Beijing will make its exchange rate more flexible but gave no indication when.

"We will increase the flexibility of the exchange rate and maintain its basic stability," Zhang said.

The 27-nation EU, China's largest trading partner, wants Beijing to relax currency controls that its trading partners say keep its yuan undervalued and give its exporters an unfair price advantage in foreign markets.

Next week's meeting comes ahead of the Dec. 7-18 U.N. summit in Copenhagen aimed at replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol with a new global treaty to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases.

"China and the EU should strengthen coordination and have even closer cooperation on climate change because it serves the common interest and will help advance international efforts to tackle climate change," Zhang said.

At a previous meeting of Chinese and European leaders in May, China failed to answer Barroso's call for Beijing and the U.S. to clearly lay out how far they are willing to go in Copenhagen to fix firm targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

China says it wants a "positive outcome" but the brunt of the effort must be borne by richer economies such as the U.S. and the EU _ and not China, a developing country.