AP: Europe calls on China to let currency appreciate

European leaders on Tuesday urged China to let its currency rise and narrow a trade deficit that has strained relations, while promising Asian countries in return more power in global financial institutions. China did not, however, commit to new currency action at a summit that highlighted how the global financial crisis had shifted the economic balance of power eastward. At the end of a two-day Europe-Asia summit dominated by the timid economic recovery, all 48 partners agreed that "in the interest of greater stability, we intend to move together." On the sidelines of the summit — held amid careful decorum, chandeliers and old-world mansions and palaces — China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and his Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan had what they claimed was a chance meeting in the sprawling corridors. Japan declared an end Tuesday to a dispute with China over a high-seas collision last month.