Beijing  - Asian and European leaders plan to call for new goals to fight climate change up to 2012 to be agreed by the end of next year, according to a draft summit statement seen Friday.

"Leaders welcomed the substantial progress made at the climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007," said the draft "chair's statement" from the biannual Asia-Europe Meeting, which opened Friday.

"They confirmed their commitment to securing an ambitious, effective and comprehensive agreed outcome now, up to and beyond 2012, by the end of 2009 on the basis of the Bali road map," said the draft, which is scheduled to be issued on Saturday at the close of the summit.

Tokyo - Defying an overnight rise on Wall Street, Asian stocks, led by Tokyo and Seoul, plummeted Friday on renewed fears of worldwide recession.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost nearly 10 per cent of its value, tumbling below 8,000 for the first time since May
2003, on indications the global financial crisis was beginning to hit the nation's exporters.

The Nikkei shed 811.9 points, or 9.6 per cent, to close at 7,649.08.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues plunged 65.59 points, or 7.52 per cent, to 806.11.

Beijing - The first Asia-Europe Meeting was held in 1996 in Bangkok as informal talks among 16 European Union members and 10 Asian nations.

The seventh summit this year has grown to include 45 delegations: the European Union's 27 members, 16 Asian states as well as the European Commission and the secretariat of the 10-nation Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The participants represent more than half the world: 58 per cent of its population, 60 per cent of its trade and 50 per cent of its economic performance.

Beijing - The largest-ever gathering of Asian and European leaders opened on Friday to discuss how to respond to the global financial crisis and combat climate change.

Talks on the financial crisis are expected to be "very intense" between leaders of the 27 European Union member states and 16 Asian nations at the seventh biannual Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing, Serge Abou, the EU's ambassador to China, told reporters earlier.

EU officials said separate "clusters" of discussions were planned on banking and financial systems, and that the EU nations hoped the meeting would promote trade talks between the two continents.

Beijing - Leaders of the "ASEAN plus three" group on Friday promised joint efforts to combat the global financial crisis and maintain regional economic stability.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao chaired the meeting of leaders of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South Korea.

The 13 Asian leaders held an open discussion on "issues of common concern, especially the financial crisis and its influence on East Asia," host nation China said.

Beijing - Major Asian economies Japan, China and India must play a full role in overcoming the global financial crisis, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Thursday.

"We need to take the lessons of the crisis for reform of the global financial system," Barroso told reporters ahead of a summit of Asian and European leaders.

"We need Asia on board," he said, adding that the participation of China, India and Japan was vital for a global solution to the crisis.

"Apart from the financial dimensions of the crisis, there are major imbalances in global trade," Barroso said.