The President of the European Commission, Jacques Santer, has held talks with China's senior leaders on the second day of his visit to the country.

Mr Santer, who has called for a global partnership between China and the European Union, praised China for playing a stabilising role in the region's financial crisis.

Mr Santer also addressed a seminar designed to stress Europe's human rights dialogue with China.

European Union countries last year dropped therir previous attacks on China's human rights record in favour of a renewed dialogue on the subject.

Addressing a conference on womens' rights held as part of that process Mr Santer stressed that Europe could now raise its criticisms openly in China.

He praised China for signing the UN's main human rights covenant, but expressed the hope that it would be quickly ratified and fully implemented, and he re-iterated Europe's concerns about issues such as prison conditions and the use of the death penalty.

Mr Santer earlier signed an accord on legal and judicial co-operation.

Bilteral trade growing

Yet economic ties remain the driving force of the relationship.

The China Daily newspaper reported that bilateral trade grew more than 16% in the first nine months of this year.

The balance remains weighted in China's favour with its surplus growing by more than $2bn in the same period as China seeks new export markets to compensate for falling sales in Asia.

Mr Santer has said Europe is prepared to accept this but he has called on China to open its own market further.

Yet Chinese officials have again appealed for flexibility from the EU over its conditions for China's entry to the World Trade Organisation.

Prime Minister Zhu also expressed the hope that the introduction of the European single currency next year would help stabilise the international financial system.