Anarchists clash with police as Asian, EU leaders gather in Helsinki
Finnish anarchists clashed with police as Asian and European Union leaders gathered here for a summit that will focus on freeing up trade and security issues such as North Korea and Iran.
Riot police battled with up to 200 anarchists in central Helsinki who were protesting against the presence of leaders from China and Myanmar at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), police said.
About a dozen people were arrested after protestors threw beer cans and charged police lines, they added. The clashes were continuing late Saturday.
Rights groups have criticized the decision by the EU, which is currently presided by Finland, to invite Myanmar's foreign minister despite a EU visa ban imposed because of the country's poor human rights record.
And critics have warned that Europe will avoid strong criticism of China's human rights abuses for fear of upsetting the country that last year took 52 billion euros (66 billion dollars) worth of imports from the EU's 25 member states.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun held bilateral talks with the EU's Finnish presidency and the European Commission earlier Saturday, before the two-day summit proper gets under way on Sunday.
Leaders and top officials from 38 Asian and European nations are scheduled to attend.
As leaders arrived Saturday in a heavily-policed Helsinki, EU and Iranian envoys were in last-ditch talks in Vienna to avert UN sanctions over Tehran's atomic ambitions.
After the EU-China talks, Wen told a news conference: "We believe that Iran should take full consideration of the concerns of the international community and take constructive steps."
But he also warned: "To mount pressure or to take sanctions will not necessarily bring about a peaceful solution."
Concerns about the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, much closer to home for the Asian leaders attending the summit, were also expected to be in the spotlight.
The South Korean president was expected to use the ASEM summit as an opportunity to sell his idea of a multilateral security system for northeast Asia.
He was also due to lay out Seoul's stance on North Korea's nuclear policy and recent missile tests, which are likely to figure prominently during security discussions.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met his Finnish counterpart Matti Vanhanen on Friday and urged him to use his influence as holder of the rotating EU presidency to have concerns over North Korea's missile development written into the chairman's statement at the conclusion of the summit.
Security issues aside, the main focus of the ASEM gathering will be on liberalizing trade, with unofficial talks expected on opening official negotiations between the EU and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the one hand, and the EU and South Korea on the other.
The Asian and European leaders were expected to push for a revival of global trade liberalization talks at the WTO even as the Asians press ahead with their own plans for a massive Asia-Pacific free-trade area.
World Trade Organisation talks were suspended in July largely due to disagreements over subsidies given by industrialized nations, including EU members, to their farmers.
Trade between the two regions now accounts for more than 43 percent of total world trade in goods, and ASEM countries make up about 52 percent of the world's gross domestic product.
With ASEM 10 years old, the leaders will also discuss inviting other countries to future talks with the aim of making a declaration on expanding the club.
Earlier this week, an anarchist group calling itself "Coalition Dongzhou" had threatened to bring "chaos" to the streets of Helsinki for the summit.
The group is named after the coastal village in China's southern Guangdong province where clashes between security forces and residents took place in 2005.
Around 2,000 anti-globalisation protestors gathered earlier Saturday without incident.
AFP
