Merkel leaves for China, Japan for climate and trade talks

BERLIN (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday left for a trip to China and Asia aimed at boosting trade ties and bringing the Asian giants to commit to global climate protection goals.

"She left at at 8:30 am (0630 GMT)," a government spokesman told AFP.
Merkel will be in China until Wednesday for talks with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao before moving on for her first visit to Japan.

She will be greeted by Emperor Akihito and meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in her three-day stay.

The chancellor is both the leader of Europe's biggest economy and the president of the Group of Eight most industrialized nations, a role Japan will take over in 2008.

China's rapidly growing economy is set to overtake Germany as the world's third largest by the end of the year and it is increasingly moving into markets in which German companies once held the upper hand.

This is creating a trade imbalance, which a delegation of 25 heads of German companies and industry representatives traveling with Merkel is hoping to address by securing lucrative contracts in China.

The global fight to reduce greenhouse gases will form a crucial element of the chancellor's trip, coming as it does just months before the international community is due to gather on the Indonesian island of Bali in December to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.