MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China in the G8.

Beijing officials have confirmed that China will be participating in the G 8 summit to be hosted next month by France. French Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin invited Chinese President Hu Jintao during a visit to China last month.

"China supports France's initiative and is making active preparations to attend the meeting", indicated a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson, adding that "this meeting is necessary at this moment, and very important".

This will be the first economic summit since the ending of hostilities in Iraq, and contrary to expectations, world growth prospects still uncertain. Economic activity in Germany and France remains feeble, the United States economy is still sluggish with Congress debating a controversial massive tax cut and Japan remains stagnant as it has been for the last decade.

China has the fastest growing economy in the world attracting massive overseas investment but is now threatened by the SARS disease that is rapidly spreading and limiting activity in the Far East.

The G 8 consists of the Group of Seven richest countries, United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom and Canada, plus Russia.

Russia has been participating in the annual meetings for several years after having being invited to talks on the sidelines in the first stages, and a similar procedure will be followed by Chinese officials. That is Mr. Hu will not be present at the main meetings of the economic summit but will meet with the leaders of the G 8 countries.

Summits have traditionally had broad agendas such as world economic growth, helping the world's poor and lately combating terrorism. Some critics believe they are mere talking shops but others underline the importance of personal contact between the world's leaders.