State Councilor Dai Bingguo meets Ali Abdussalam Treki, the president of the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, in Shanghai on Thursday. [Wu Zhiyi / China Daily]

Top Chinese leaders to play host to foreign dignitaries in next few days

SHANGHAI - More than twenty world leaders have been confirmed to arrive in Shanghai ahead of the Friday opening ceremony of the Shanghai Expo, where President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese leaders are expected to play host to the foreign dignitaries over the weekend.

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President Hu, who arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday, said the exhibition was the first World Expo to be held in a developing country. Hu said China was sure to conduct a successful expo with the help of (other) developing countries.

On Thursday, the president met his counterpart from the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, and Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba.

Hu is also scheduled to meet Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Yong Nam, and Lee Myung-bak, the President of the Republic of Korea, on Friday.

Hu will hold formal talks in Shanghai with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, following the Expo's opening ceremony late on Friday.

Vice-President Xi Jinping, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang as well as State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will also meet with other State leaders during the following days.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who arrived in China on Wednesday, said previously that France was one of the firm supporters of Shanghai's candidacy for the exposition and was the first country to have promised to participate in the event.

"The choice of China and the choice of Shanghai, were something very important for us; that is the reason why I wanted to personally attend the opening ceremony," he said. The French pavilion has a budget of 50 million euros, the largest input France has ever made for any world expo, according to Franck Serrano, director of the French pavilion.

Serrano was quoted by the China News Service as saying that that France recognizes the Shanghai Expo as a symbol of the rise of the East.

This will also be the first time that a European Union to open a pavilion at a world expo held outside a European country, said Serge Abou, the EU ambassador to China.

He said Barroso's participation is intended to signal that the EU is optimistic and confident about Sino-EU relations as well as the development of China and Shanghai.

As China's biggest trade partner, EU has placed its "EU pavilion" inside the Belgium pavilion, as Brussels is where the EU headquarters is located. The exhibition hall will host more than 100 lectures, meetings and ceremonies for the duration of the expo.

Nearly 192 countries and 50 international organizations will participate in the Expo, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said during a regular press conference in Beijing.