New president takes international stage

China's new president, Hu Jintao, has been preparing to attend his first summit meetings with other heads of state, the Financial Times said. On May 26, he was due to travel to Russia for a meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, which groups China, Russia and four central Asian countries. He was then to visit France to discuss development issues with other state leaders, on the first day of the summit of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialised nations.