Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday advocated establishing disaster relief cooperation mechanism among the members of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in a bid to reduce losses to the greatest extent.

Addressing the second closed session of the ASEM summit in Beijing, Wen, moderator of the session, called for discussing the establishment of the mechanism and ways for the cooperation among the 45 ASEM members on disaster relief.

Disaster prevention and alleviation have become a common challenge for Asia and Europe since natural disasters caused serious damages to their economies and societies in recent years, said Wen.

The premier said the Asian and European countries should increase exchanges of disaster relief experiences and strengthen cooperation on technologies and personnel training.

In addition, the countries should upgrade their capacity of disaster risk evaluation, first aid and post-disaster reconstruction, he said.

As to the global grain security issue, one of the summit's planned topics, Wen said Asia and Europe, including the world's major grain producers, exporters and consumers, boast rich experience and advanced technologies on agricultural production.

Wen said efforts should be made to increase agricultural investment, improve grain trade mechanism and adopt comprehensive measures on finance, trade, food assistance and environment protection.

The seventh ASEM summit opened Friday afternoon with the attendance of the leaders and representatives from 45 Asian and European nations and organizations.

The summit has drawn the participants' attention from the designed topics of energy, climate change, food security and sustainable development to coping with the current financial crisis.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2008)