Chinese President Hu Jintao and leaders of other Group of 20 (G20) members gathered?in Seoul?Friday to address the challenges to the ongoing global economic recovery and work out strategies to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced global growth.

President Hu, who participated in the G20 summits in Washington in 2008, in London and Pittsburgh in 2009, and in Toronto last June, is expected to expound China's stand on the major issues to be discussed at the fifth meeting in the South Korean capital, according to Chinese officials.

At the Seoul summit, the leaders will discuss the world economic situation, the "Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced global growth," the reform of global financial institutions, the strengthening of financial regulations, a global financial safety net and development issues.

"The G20 summit to be held in Seoul, South Korea, is the first one of its kind to be held in an emerging economy and in Asia, hence it is of great significance to the development of the G20 mechanism," President Hu said in a written interview with South Korean media last Tuesday.

Hu said the Seoul summit should focus on the following issues:

-- To continue to strengthen coordination of macro-economic policies using an "in-the-same-boat" spirit and mutually beneficial and win-win principles, and to send to the market positive signals that G20 members were unified in tackling the great challenges of the world economy so market confidence could rally and the momentum of the world economic recovery would be secured.

-- To push forward the reforms of the international financial system, to strengthen supervision of the international financial market, and to increase the say and the representation of emerging and developing countries in international financial institutions.

-- To push forward a solution to the unbalanced development between developed and developing countries and to provide political support to the realization of UN Millennium Development Goals.

-- To oppose trade protectionism and to push forward the Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks to achieve comprehensive and balanced results and its development goals.

The previous four G20 summits formulated measures to deal with the international financial crisis. The summits have played an important role in returning the world economy to growth, stabilizing international financial markets and ensuring the confidence of the public and business.

When they met last June in Toronto, the G20 leaders agreed on the importance of safeguarding and strengthening the recovery while laying the foundation for strong, sustainable and balanced growth, and strengthening the financial systems.

At the Seoul Summit, according to the host South Korea, the G20 will build on past agreements, while introducing new agenda items that support the same fundamental goals.

The G20 was established in 1999 to bring together strategically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy.

It includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States, and the European Union (EU).

Together, G20 members represent around 90 percent of global gross national product, 80 percent of world trade (including EU intra-trade) and two-thirds of the world's population.