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China and the European Union have launched high-level trade discussions aimed at resolving concerns over the Communist nation's expanding trade surplus with the 27-nation bloc.

The talks were announced on Friday (25 April) during a two-day trip of nine European Commissioners to China – the largest delegation Europe had ever sent to the country.

"I want to express ... my confidence that the EU and China are developing an ever closer, ever deeper comprehensive strategic partnership," said commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to reporters alongside Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

"Bilateral trade volumes are impressive and are increasing every year by 20-25%," he added.

"But there are major imbalances and we both agree on the necessity to re-balance our bilateral trade. We have made useful progress today."

The discussion is the first session of the High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue Mechanism (HLM) decided at the last EU-China Summit.

The HLM is modelled on a similar process currently underway between China and the United States, the Strategic Economic Dialogue. Both sets of discussion are the product of a desire on the part of the EU and US to tackle their respective trade deficits with China.

The country's trade surplus with the Union currently stands at €160 billion, according to EU figures. The EU is China's biggest trading partner, and for the EU, only the US is a bigger market for European goods and services.

The talks were jointly chaired by Chinese vice-premier Wang Qishan and EU trade chief Peter Mandelson. A "large team" of Chinese ministers and the other eight commissioners participated in the discussions.

"This new dialogue mechanism should deliver concrete results in order to demonstrate to the European and Chinese people that co-operation and partnership work effectively for them," said Mr Barroso.

Participants in the dialogue will take stock of progress at the next EU-China summit in France later this year.

The president also had a "very deep exchange of views" on climate change with the Chinese leader. He said that China offered "indications of readiness" to include its domestic emission reduction policies in the new international agreement on climate change that is to replace the Kyoto protocol.

China's quid pro quo for this concession is that developed countries commit to mid-term reduction targets for 2020 and that an effective financial mechanism is put in place to promote technology transfer

Mr Barroso also said that at the next EU-China summit, the two sides are to sign a financing agreement to establish a Euro-China Clean Energy Centre (EC2) in Beijing. They also agreed to cooperate on carbon capture and storage development and to have further discussions on energy efficiency standards in construction.

The president also announced that the People's Republic and the Union are to initiate an EU-China-Africa partnership in development co-operation.

Last week (23 April), the European Parliament approved a report strongly criticising the role China is increasingly playing in Africa, accusing the country of ignoring human rights abuses when making deals with African governments and undermining sustainable development in its various natural resource extraction endeavours there.

President Barroso also said he discussed his concerns surrounding the recent Chinese government crackdown on protesters in Tibet.

"I am particularly encouraged by our open and frank exchanges on Tibet," said Mr Barroso after meeting with Wen. "I hope to see positive developments soon.

The president went on to say that the EU remains "attached to the territorial integrity and unity of China and this naturally applies to Tibet."

Trade commissioner Mandelson elsewhere during the China trip re-iterated his opposition to the idea of European leaders boycotting any part of the upcoming Beijing Olympic games as an appropriate response to the crackdown.

High-level trade discussions aim to overcome China-EU imbalances