European Commission President Jose Barroso appealed on Thursday for enhanced global coordination to tackle the financial meltdown.

"We need a coordinated global response to reform the global financial system. We are living in unprecedented times and we need unprecedented levels of global coordination," the former Portuguese prime minister said in a speech at China National School of Administration.

"The latest events have made clear that the current model of financial regulation and supervision needs to be revamped at the international level. We need Asia to be on board.

"It's very simple. We swim together, or we sink together."

Barroso was here to attend the seventh biannual summit of Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

The 45 ASEM members are the 27 member states of the European Union (EU), the 10 Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) members, and six other Asian countries – Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, India, Mongolia and Pakistan, and the ASEAN Secretariat and European Commission.

"We hope leaders from Asian and European countries will take this opportunity to fully exchange views on how to strengthen coordination, cooperation in dealing with this issue," Barroso said. "And we hope their discussion will be fruitful."

He also voiced hope for China-Euro relations, saying the two sides should reinforce cooperation and push forward their comprehensive strategic partnership.

Chinese State Councilor Ma Kai applauded Barroso's opinion on the Sino-EU relations. He said China all along had paid high attention to the bilateral relations.

"To enhance the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership accords with the fundamental interests of the two sides."

(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2008)